P~(ptilde) 0.9 released, new scripting language with novel regex

[dhalde60]

P~ (pronounced "ptilde") is a new Java friendly scripting language.
The principle reason for creating it was to offer a new and more
powerful approach to creating regular expressions. Unlike all other
regex engines, P~ does not use the Perl-compatible metacharacter
syntax, instead using algebraic syntax for regex composition. This
decision opens the door to more powerful side-effects than even
possible in Perl, but preserving the readability and maintainability
of P~ regexes. In other regex engines, your regular expressions become
hard to read as the difficulty of the problem increases. Not so in P~.

While P~ makes it easy to grapple with matching and transformation
problems that are hard for even Perl programmers, its basic grammar is
Java-like, more so than even Groovy. This means that Java programmers
can quickly learn the basic grammar forms.


P~ is also Java friendly because you can import Java classes within
your scripts, and use their public apis just like in your Java code.
All you have to do is make sure that when you launch the Ptilde
scripting application, you include the appropriate Java libraries (jar
files) in the classpath.


Finally, P~ is Java friendly because its engine is a Java library.
Thus, if a Java programmer has a tough matching or transformation
problem, solve it first with a P~ script, using the standalone
application shell and the novel P~ regex grammars; then make this
script available to your Java application as either a file or a
resource, and easily invoke it from your Java class. You are allowed
to pass arguments and return a result from a scriptlet.


If this sounds interesting, take a look at the home page for the
documentation, which is found at ptilde wiki - Regular expression engine and Java-li.... Start with the
Tutorial which will guide you through first the basic grammar of
Ptilde and then through the regex grammar forms.