6 ms·

Skype's Crazy Regex Easter Egg

216 points by nicpottier 16y ago

gmac 16y ago
I was sceptical about this, but it works. I also noticed recently that, in a somewhat shell-like way, you can press the up arrow to edit your previous message at will (but perhaps this is common knowledge).
- borism 16y ago
  yup, just some toying around by our mac devs :)
  - derefr 16y ago
    As a suggestion, you could search the line for the substring with the least Levenshtein distance from the correction, to use as the text to replace—and thus also support the "*word" correction syntax I see quite more often from non-technical friends. :)
    - robgough 16y ago
      I believe (though am likely wrong) that the *correction format originated in IRC, where you can't edit text once you've sent it... though I now see s/wrd/word/ quite often too - but that's mainly in technical rooms.
  - statictype 16y ago
    And apparently your Windows devs as well...
s0urceror 16y ago
I've always wanted to implement this in my IRC client, but been too lazy, it's nice to see it implemented in some form of chat client, although it's a bit lacking. Is the change visible for all participants?
- chapel 16y ago
  The main theme for a Mac based IRC client has this feature built in. Though it only reflects for people that have that client/theme. If you are wondering the client, it is Linkinus. I believe the change is visible in Skype for all participants.
- piaskal 16y ago
  You can edit sent messages on IRC?
  - s0urceror 16y ago
    Nope, but this would be a purely client-only visual thing (so, editing the local chat buffer), primarily just to have done it.
  - moe 16y ago
    No, but some clients such as linkinus will apply the regex on the client-side. Less capable clients just display it like any other message.
lemonad 16y ago
That feature has been around since 2008, iirc.
sygma 16y ago
You can also right click on a reply and click "edit message" [1] – tested on Skype for OS X. [1]: http://cl.ly/4Z1R http://cl.ly/4Z1R
- Wawl 16y ago
  You can also press the upper arrow to edit the last message (on mac)
stuaxo 16y ago
Cool so whats the regex to erase all the previous comments?
kilian 16y ago
Doesn't work in the linux version :( Skype, can we have an update with new functionality? (the interface is fine!)
- mziulu 16y ago
  Mmh, I noticed it works with my Skype client, on Fedora, while it doesn't work wth my buddy's client, on Windows.
  - statictype 16y ago
    Works on Windows. At least it did a few months ago when I first discovered it.
- crocowhile 16y ago
  still waiting for this http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2009/11/skype_open_source.html http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2009/11/skype_open_source.html
EGreg 16y ago
So how do I write the literal version now? I still want it for humorous effect.
- rflrob 16y ago
  Just leave off the trailing slash. Once someone pointed out that the sed syntax works for replacing, I started doing that.
tmachinecharmer 16y ago
Valentines day special guy> I love you darling! girl> GO 2 HELL!! guy> s/love/hate guy> s/darling/bitch
- limmeau 16y ago
  Last time I tried, I could only edit my posts while the other one hadn't answered yet. So: haha, but no.
  - robgough 16y ago
    In a group chat, I seem to be able to edit my previous messages OK - even if someone has replied already and if I've written something else since then.
  - AdamGibbins 16y ago
    You can right click any message in your history and hit edit.
    - kalmi10 16y ago
      Not on Windows...
kayoone 16y ago
s/Bit/But
- nicpottier 16y ago
  Thanks. :)
hackermom 16y ago
words* <- I just saved a few bytes worth of network traffic, and a whole lot of CPU cycles.
- T-hawk 16y ago
  At the cost of mental cycles of your recipient reader to parse what just happened, which come in much less available quantity than network bytes or CPU cycles.
adam-_- 16y ago
This has worked for as long as I can remember.
unwind 16y ago
I find it highly annoying that this, as far as I understand, really doesn't use regular expressions. The s/that/this/ syntax is not, of course, a regular expression. The regular expression is the thing that might go into the "that" part, an expression that can match against several different inputs. If all it supports is literals, it's not really worth calling it a regular expression, in my opinion. The article expresses this like so: Some experimentation shows that it isn't a full regular expression engine, it will only do straight word substitution. I think this is stretching it; sure all literal strings are regular expressions, but if that's all there is (i.e. no alteration, repeat etc), then why call it an RE at all? Am I just being grumpy?
- djacobs 16y ago
  I agree with you. This is simple substitution. (If we're going to call this a regex mechanism, so is Find/Replace in Word.)
  - djacobs 16y ago
    I don't mind downvotes, but what are they for? (I upvoted the parent post out of the negatives and now I'm there... I guess that's karma huh.)
    - nitrogen 16y ago
      Sometimes they come from fat fingering the downvote button on a cellphone. Such downvotes are usually rectified eventually.
- nicpottier 16y ago
  Oh, no argument there, though being "highly annoyed" may point to some grumpiness. It is clearly not a regex engine, but it operates like a very very naive one, and uses the Perl syntax for them. Ultimately Regex just seemed like the easiest / clearest way of describing the functionality. IE, if I say "Skype supports the Perl Regex syntax for simple word substitution" you probably instantly think of s/a/b/. Maybe I should have used that as the headline, but it seemed a bit long.
nketas 16y ago
This doesn't work on windows version of skype.. i guess windows users have to pay for not having regex :P
- nketas 16y ago
  Now a good question would be, will it work if I had Regex for windows installed when installing skype or what is its windows replacement..!!
tacoe 16y ago
How is this an easter egg? Been using it for years.
- roryokane 16y ago
  It’s an easter egg in that there is no documentation for the feature, and it is one that only people who are “in on the joke” (use IRC) would look for. The feature being functional doesn’t prevent it from being an easter egg.
brown9-2 16y ago
You can type in "/help" in a chat to see more options: sys: Available commands: /me [text] /add [skypename+] /alertson [text] /alertsoff /whois [skypename] /help For more help please see http://www.skype.com/go/help.chathelp Clickable link to the full list: http://www.skype.com/go/help.chathelp http://www.skype.com/go/help.chathelp
ck2 16y ago
So how does it look in your logs? I will pay you $1,000 to do this project for me (at end of chat) s/$1,000/$1
roryokane 16y ago
When I first found this feature, I tried to write an email to Skype to thank them for including it. Sadly, there is no way to do such a thing. I looked all over their website for a contact email address, and I finally found one on a hard-to-find page, but when I wrote my message to it, I just got an auto-reply saying basically “please don’t send email to us. Call us or open a support ticket.” Opening a support ticket just to say “thank you” didn’t seem right. It’s sad that the company provides a way for people to complain about the program not working, but not for people to thank the makers of the program. (And I don’t think it’s because thank yous are useless to the company – knowing what your customers like is valuable feedback.)
cgart 16y ago
You do not need to type in /s/blah/anotherblah, it is already enough that you just hit the 'Up'-key on your keyboard. You then can edit previously written text!!! It is really interesting that nobody points this out ;)
aaronsw 16y ago
/topic works as well.

216 points by nicpottier 16y ago

gmac 16y ago

I was sceptical about this, but it works. I also noticed recently that, in a somewhat shell-like way, you can press the up arrow to edit your previous message at will (but perhaps this is common knowledge).

borism 16y ago
yup, just some toying around by our mac devs :)
- derefr 16y ago
  As a suggestion, you could search the line for the substring with the least Levenshtein distance from the correction, to use as the text to replace—and thus also support the "*word" correction syntax I see quite more often from non-technical friends. :)
  - robgough 16y ago
    I believe (though am likely wrong) that the *correction format originated in IRC, where you can't edit text once you've sent it... though I now see s/wrd/word/ quite often too - but that's mainly in technical rooms.
- statictype 16y ago
  And apparently your Windows devs as well...

s0urceror 16y ago

I've always wanted to implement this in my IRC client, but been too lazy, it's nice to see it implemented in some form of chat client, although it's a bit lacking. Is the change visible for all participants?

chapel 16y ago
The main theme for a Mac based IRC client has this feature built in. Though it only reflects for people that have that client/theme. If you are wondering the client, it is Linkinus. I believe the change is visible in Skype for all participants.
piaskal 16y ago
You can edit sent messages on IRC?
- s0urceror 16y ago
  Nope, but this would be a purely client-only visual thing (so, editing the local chat buffer), primarily just to have done it.
- moe 16y ago
  No, but some clients such as linkinus will apply the regex on the client-side. Less capable clients just display it like any other message.

lemonad 16y ago

That feature has been around since 2008, iirc.

sygma 16y ago

You can also right click on a reply and click "edit message" [1] – tested on Skype for OS X. [1]: http://cl.ly/4Z1R http://cl.ly/4Z1R

Wawl 16y ago
You can also press the upper arrow to edit the last message (on mac)

stuaxo 16y ago

Cool so whats the regex to erase all the previous comments?

kilian 16y ago

Doesn't work in the linux version :( Skype, can we have an update with new functionality? (the interface is fine!)

mziulu 16y ago
Mmh, I noticed it works with my Skype client, on Fedora, while it doesn't work wth my buddy's client, on Windows.
- statictype 16y ago
  Works on Windows. At least it did a few months ago when I first discovered it.
crocowhile 16y ago
still waiting for this http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2009/11/skype_open_source.html http://blogs.skype.com/linux/2009/11/skype_open_source.html

EGreg 16y ago

So how do I write the literal version now? I still want it for humorous effect.

rflrob 16y ago
Just leave off the trailing slash. Once someone pointed out that the sed syntax works for replacing, I started doing that.

tmachinecharmer 16y ago

Valentines day special guy> I love you darling! girl> GO 2 HELL!! guy> s/love/hate guy> s/darling/bitch

limmeau 16y ago
Last time I tried, I could only edit my posts while the other one hadn't answered yet. So: haha, but no.
- robgough 16y ago
  In a group chat, I seem to be able to edit my previous messages OK - even if someone has replied already and if I've written something else since then.
- AdamGibbins 16y ago
  You can right click any message in your history and hit edit.
  - kalmi10 16y ago
    Not on Windows...

kayoone 16y ago

s/Bit/But

nicpottier 16y ago
Thanks. :)

hackermom 16y ago

words* <- I just saved a few bytes worth of network traffic, and a whole lot of CPU cycles.

T-hawk 16y ago
At the cost of mental cycles of your recipient reader to parse what just happened, which come in much less available quantity than network bytes or CPU cycles.

adam-_- 16y ago

This has worked for as long as I can remember.

unwind 16y ago

I find it highly annoying that this, as far as I understand, really doesn't use regular expressions. The s/that/this/ syntax is not, of course, a regular expression. The regular expression is the thing that might go into the "that" part, an expression that can match against several different inputs. If all it supports is literals, it's not really worth calling it a regular expression, in my opinion. The article expresses this like so: Some experimentation shows that it isn't a full regular expression engine, it will only do straight word substitution. I think this is stretching it; sure all literal strings are regular expressions, but if that's all there is (i.e. no alteration, repeat etc), then why call it an RE at all? Am I just being grumpy?

djacobs 16y ago
I agree with you. This is simple substitution. (If we're going to call this a regex mechanism, so is Find/Replace in Word.)
- djacobs 16y ago
  I don't mind downvotes, but what are they for? (I upvoted the parent post out of the negatives and now I'm there... I guess that's karma huh.)
  - nitrogen 16y ago
    Sometimes they come from fat fingering the downvote button on a cellphone. Such downvotes are usually rectified eventually.
nicpottier 16y ago
Oh, no argument there, though being "highly annoyed" may point to some grumpiness. It is clearly not a regex engine, but it operates like a very very naive one, and uses the Perl syntax for them. Ultimately Regex just seemed like the easiest / clearest way of describing the functionality. IE, if I say "Skype supports the Perl Regex syntax for simple word substitution" you probably instantly think of s/a/b/. Maybe I should have used that as the headline, but it seemed a bit long.

nketas 16y ago

This doesn't work on windows version of skype.. i guess windows users have to pay for not having regex :P

nketas 16y ago
Now a good question would be, will it work if I had Regex for windows installed when installing skype or what is its windows replacement..!!

tacoe 16y ago

How is this an easter egg? Been using it for years.

roryokane 16y ago
It’s an easter egg in that there is no documentation for the feature, and it is one that only people who are “in on the joke” (use IRC) would look for. The feature being functional doesn’t prevent it from being an easter egg.

brown9-2 16y ago

You can type in "/help" in a chat to see more options: sys: Available commands: /me [text] /add [skypename+] /alertson [text] /alertsoff /whois [skypename] /help For more help please see http://www.skype.com/go/help.chathelp Clickable link to the full list: http://www.skype.com/go/help.chathelp http://www.skype.com/go/help.chathelp

ck2 16y ago

So how does it look in your logs? I will pay you $1,000 to do this project for me (at end of chat) s/$1,000/$1

roryokane 16y ago

When I first found this feature, I tried to write an email to Skype to thank them for including it. Sadly, there is no way to do such a thing. I looked all over their website for a contact email address, and I finally found one on a hard-to-find page, but when I wrote my message to it, I just got an auto-reply saying basically “please don’t send email to us. Call us or open a support ticket.” Opening a support ticket just to say “thank you” didn’t seem right. It’s sad that the company provides a way for people to complain about the program not working, but not for people to thank the makers of the program. (And I don’t think it’s because thank yous are useless to the company – knowing what your customers like is valuable feedback.)

cgart 16y ago

You do not need to type in /s/blah/anotherblah, it is already enough that you just hit the 'Up'-key on your keyboard. You then can edit previously written text!!! It is really interesting that nobody points this out ;)

aaronsw 16y ago

/topic works as well.