Re: new module 'regex-quote'

[Bruno Haible]

Reuben,

> Heh. My point precisely: 3 functions and 50 lines versus 1 flag and 5
> lines (RE_PLAIN) to solve the same problem

I agree that if we had the opportunity to invent regex APIs from scratch
now, all 4 syntaxes (literals, wildcards, basic regular expression, extended
regular expression) would be worth supporting equally.

But the fact is that POSIX standardizes the regex API, and therefore there
is a border between "in glibc" and "outside glibc". Functionality in glibc
is available at no cost; functionality outside glibc requires additional
link options and increased startup time or a 50KB bigger executable.

Bruno