I don't disagree. But the programmers have "regexes" which refers unambiguously to their type of "regular expression"; there's no good equivalent for a CS theor

I don't disagree. But the programmers have "regexes" which refers unambiguously to their type of "regular expression"; there's no good equivalent for a CS theorist. (A regular language is not a regular expression, just like the set of prime numbers is not a test for primality.)