Re: looking-back

[Richard Stallman]

    By the way, the only fix I know for the main problem is to do:

      (defun looking-back (regexp &optional limit)
        "Return non-nil if text before point matches REGEXP.
      Contrary to `looking-at', it will return the shortest match and it is
      typically orders of magnitude slower."
        (save-excursion
          (re-search-backward (concat "\\(?:" regexp "\\)\\=") limit t)))

    This is also the only use I know of for the \= regexp operator.

Would you please install this?  Note that the warning is
too strong--it should instead say you need to specify a close LIMIT
to get reasonable speed.