4 ms·

The article explains optimizations to spend less cycles parsing URLs than other libraries. Very interesting work, there's no reason not to do things efficiently

The article explains optimizations to spend less cycles parsing URLs than other libraries. Very interesting work, there's no reason not to do things efficiently when it's possible. Also, good luck using regex to write a RFC or WHATWG conformant URL parser.

TZubiri 2y ago
2 minutes reading an rfc about uris and I find a regex literally used in the specs: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#page-7 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#page-7 >> The following line is the regular expression for breaking-down a well-formed URI reference into its components. >> ^(([^:/?#]+):)?(//([^/?#]))?([^?#])(\?([^#]))?(#(.))? Did Chomsky die for nothing? I guess there are reasons to do things efficiently when possible, but a million URLs is not it, the adage about the root of all evil comes to mind. A billion URLs per second and it's almost interesting, but not really.
- FroshKiller 2y ago
  The spec provides an expression for "well-formed" URIs. Good luck with real-world input.
- switchbak 2y ago
  Last I heard Noam Chomsky was still alive, and a quick Google doesn’t contradict that. Or is this some kind of high brow joke that went over my head?
  - throw16180339 2y ago
    I think they're joking about Chomsky's work with formal languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky_hierarchy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky_hierarchy).
  - TZubiri 2y ago
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/noam-chomsky-not-dead-1.7239373 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/noam-chomsky-not-dead-1.723937... Damn. I got fake newsd. It was probably a close call. My commiseration email must have looked so silly.
- yagiznizipli 2y ago
  RFC 3986 is a lot simpler than WHATWG spec. You can literally write a zero copy 3986 parser whereas you can’t with WHATWG. (And Ada is still faster than 3986 parsers)
- runlevel1 2y ago
  That doesn't normalize the URL nor does it handle relative URL joining logic. It also doesn't handle URLs like: `file:///foo.txt`

TZubiri 2y ago

2 minutes reading an rfc about uris and I find a regex literally used in the specs: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#page-7 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#page-7 >> The following line is the regular expression for breaking-down a well-formed URI reference into its components. >> ^(([^:/?#]+):)?(//([^/?#]))?([^?#])(\?([^#]))?(#(.))? Did Chomsky die for nothing? I guess there are reasons to do things efficiently when possible, but a million URLs is not it, the adage about the root of all evil comes to mind. A billion URLs per second and it's almost interesting, but not really.

FroshKiller 2y ago
The spec provides an expression for "well-formed" URIs. Good luck with real-world input.
switchbak 2y ago
Last I heard Noam Chomsky was still alive, and a quick Google doesn’t contradict that. Or is this some kind of high brow joke that went over my head?
- throw16180339 2y ago
  I think they're joking about Chomsky's work with formal languages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky_hierarchy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky_hierarchy).
- TZubiri 2y ago
  https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/noam-chomsky-not-dead-1.7239373 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/noam-chomsky-not-dead-1.723937... Damn. I got fake newsd. It was probably a close call. My commiseration email must have looked so silly.
yagiznizipli 2y ago
RFC 3986 is a lot simpler than WHATWG spec. You can literally write a zero copy 3986 parser whereas you can’t with WHATWG. (And Ada is still faster than 3986 parsers)
runlevel1 2y ago
That doesn't normalize the URL nor does it handle relative URL joining logic. It also doesn't handle URLs like: `file:///foo.txt`