Subj : RegExp Behaviour in FSE
To   : Angus McLeod
From : Deuce
Date : Wed Mar 01 2006 08:21 pm

  Re: RegExp Behaviour in FSE
  By: Angus McLeod to Deuce on Wed Mar 01 2006 10:22 am

 > Selected text *or* the entire document, might consist of several
 > paragraphs.  Therefore, the un-flagged RE should refer to the entire
 > unmodified string, selection or all.  The RE should (IMHO) treat both hard
 > *and* soft newlines as newlines.  Soft newlines as inserted by an
 > automated wordwrap are only a convenience for the user.  There shouldn't
 > be any confusion.  If the user, looking at the text *sees* a newline, then
 > the RE should respond as expected.  Were I to apply /^para/m to this
 > parabraph, for instance, it should match *twice*, even though one instance
 > of the word 'paragraph' was explicitly wrapped by the ENTER key, and the
 > other was auto wrapped.
 > 
 > The 'm' and 's' flags should modify the behaviour of the RE as normal, but
 > (IMHO) it should treat *both* hard and soft newlines as newlines.
 > 
 > Thoughts?

That's pretty much how I'm leaning.. was just worried about the case where Dumb
User posted something about Dumb User and I wanted to quickly do a nice simple
s/Dumb User/Idiot/g and it only matches one.  I mean... it's going to need to
rewrap after a replacement anyways.

The other option would be to use only hard CRs in the string, and allow the m
flag to use wrapped lines.  iirc, in general, ^ and $ match the beginning and
end of a *STRING* not a line.  So the m flag would make ^ and $ match lines. 
The s flag wouldn't need any special handling at all since it merely expands
what . matches to include newlines.  So your example would work as you expected
with the m flag, and not match anything otherwise.  ie:

$_="Two line\nParagraphs\n";
print "No flags\n" if(/^Para/);
print "m flag\n" if(/^Para/m);

Further, if it included soft CRs, that would be an extra bit of whitespace
where there "really" isnt.

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