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> "NimbleText - Regular Expressions are hard and I'm not very smart. NimbleText lets me do crazy stuff with large amounts of text with it hurting so much [sic].

by nhebb 13y ago

> "NimbleText - Regular Expressions are hard and I'm not very smart. NimbleText lets me do crazy stuff with large amounts of text with it hurting so much [sic]." In case it's unclear from the description, NimbleText is a simple code generator. It's saved me a ton of time and keystrokes. Well worth the $20.

JackMorgan 13y ago
> "NimbleText - Regular Expressions are hard and I'm not very smart. NimbleText lets me do crazy stuff with large amounts of text with it hurting so much [sic]." I couldn't even read this part without laughing, all I hear is: "I'm too lazy to spend a few hours learning the free, extremely powerful tools available to me, so I'll use this weaker substitute instead. And it's only 20 bucks!" I overcame my eye rolling, and checked out the tool. It looks fine, but it seems like just a GUI over regex, right? Am I missing anything?
- brudgers 13y ago
  If you're missing something, perhaps it is the use of literary license. The article is written for an audience not as a therapeutic journal. Sure regular expressions can be learned as quickly as one can type del *.* but a few hours of study isn't going to make much of their syntax stick two weeks later, and two weeks between uses is a lot more frequent than most computer users use them. Everyone ain't a programmer.
  - justinmk 13y ago
    > Sure regular expressions can be learned as quickly as one can type del *.* That is not a regex, it's a glob/wildcard pattern.
    - 6cxs2hd6 13y ago
      Well it's also a regexp: It's "del" followed by zero or more spaces followed by zero or more of any char. :) Although I feel competent with moderately complex regexps, I'm not sure I'd want to use them instead of globs while slinging my valuable files at the command line. Which I think goes back to the ancestor point -- is it crazy to use a GUI to make regexps for you? Although I too can get snooty about that, I think it's smart for someone who doesn't use regexps frequently in their work -- but on the rare occasions they need to, they need to get it right.
    - brudgers 13y ago
      It's literary license. There's no reason that 'splat' cannot represent zero or more printable characters or 'dot' be a reference to the literal character within a syntax for expressing regular expressions. There is no single correct isomorphism. Though the point about Regex's being distinct from wildcards just reinforces the idea that regex's are not an obvious concept.
  - JackMorgan 13y ago
    > Everyone ain't a programmer. Point taken. I've always associated his blog as a resource for programmers, but a tool like this is perfect for non-programmer power users.
- mistermann 13y ago
  If buying a tool for $20 gets the job done just as well and saves the "few hours" of learning how to do it so-called "properly", it seems like the correct decision to me. Based purely on this one single comment (which isn't much to go on to be fair) I wouldn't be giving someone like you too much broad authority on a project because you lack wise judgement skills in my opinion. Since you mention laughing at people, you may not be aware of it, or care, but people ("idiot" managers and "idiot" users) might very well laugh at you behind their backs as well. If you lack perspective, the ability to consider issues from the point of view of different stakeholders, you're going to see a lot of idiots around you.
  - JackMorgan 13y ago
    You sound quite offended, that was not my intention. If you consider it wise judgment to pay money to spend a few hours to learn a less flexible, leakier abstraction rather than just spending the few hours, and gaining a lifetime skill, learning the high powered, free tool available, that is where we differ. I don't laugh at people who don't know something, quite the contrary, there is little I love more than helping someone grow in knowledge. I laugh at a worldview that celebrates ignorance as if it were a virtue. I have no doubt people laugh at me too, probably because I believe anyone can be better than they are, anyone can improve. I have high expectations for myself and those around me. And that, for a person who chooses a worldview that celebrates ignorance, can only be met with derisive laughter and ad hominem attacks.
    - mistermann 13y ago
      Not offended, just tired of, in my perception, the air of absolute certainty among so many technical people. A bit beyond the scope of this particular discussion, what does offend me is when people (not you perhaps) are constantly learning these life long skills on the client's dime. Some things it is fair/correct/righteous to learn and bill as part of a project, but when it isn't, I'll take the $20 approach every time. It offends me when technical people are dishonest and insist that the "technically correct and proper" way is the path that must be taken, not the approach that should be taken. Or, they don't even inform the client of the option and just secretly make the decision to take the more expensive route. Again, not saying this is you, but it sure as hell happens. By the way, who here is celebrating ignorance? Scott Hanselman?
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  After using ViEmu with VS, I can't imagine editing blocks or doing code-gen-like tasks without vim's macros.
  - JackMorgan 13y ago
    Indeed, vim macros are mind bogglingly powerful for such a small investment of time.
- nhebb 13y ago
  > Am I missing anything? You can embed javascript in the NimbleText substitution pattern, which lets you go beyond just matching and replacement.
- xivSolutions 13y ago
  Regex can be painful in cases which go beyond the low-lying, easy ones. Also, people have different innate skills. I am one who does not do so well remembering esoteric character combinations. I use regex frequently enough to understand how it works, and what I need, but without fail, I lack the "muscle memory" to just know what to type when doing much more complex than a simple match. This usually leads me to Google, or to a tool like this. I have similar trouble with odd terminal commands and flags. I am not afraid of them, but it simply not part of my mental make-up to remember them all. The ones I use frequently - no problem. Those I use only occasionally - Google. :-) Let's face it - regex IS HARD if you are not a regex "power user" or if you are the sort, like myself, whose mental map is not optimized for such things.
  - JackMorgan 13y ago
    Yeah, I end up using more a tool called vim macros found in vsvim. They are very powerful. There are only really two commands to remember: record and play. I highly recommend them to anyone who doesn't use regex enough to remember them.

by nhebb 13y ago

JackMorgan 13y ago

> "NimbleText - Regular Expressions are hard and I'm not very smart. NimbleText lets me do crazy stuff with large amounts of text with it hurting so much [sic]." I couldn't even read this part without laughing, all I hear is: "I'm too lazy to spend a few hours learning the free, extremely powerful tools available to me, so I'll use this weaker substitute instead. And it's only 20 bucks!" I overcame my eye rolling, and checked out the tool. It looks fine, but it seems like just a GUI over regex, right? Am I missing anything?

brudgers 13y ago
If you're missing something, perhaps it is the use of literary license. The article is written for an audience not as a therapeutic journal. Sure regular expressions can be learned as quickly as one can type del *.* but a few hours of study isn't going to make much of their syntax stick two weeks later, and two weeks between uses is a lot more frequent than most computer users use them. Everyone ain't a programmer.
- justinmk 13y ago
  > Sure regular expressions can be learned as quickly as one can type del *.* That is not a regex, it's a glob/wildcard pattern.
  - 6cxs2hd6 13y ago
    Well it's also a regexp: It's "del" followed by zero or more spaces followed by zero or more of any char. :) Although I feel competent with moderately complex regexps, I'm not sure I'd want to use them instead of globs while slinging my valuable files at the command line. Which I think goes back to the ancestor point -- is it crazy to use a GUI to make regexps for you? Although I too can get snooty about that, I think it's smart for someone who doesn't use regexps frequently in their work -- but on the rare occasions they need to, they need to get it right.
  - brudgers 13y ago
    It's literary license. There's no reason that 'splat' cannot represent zero or more printable characters or 'dot' be a reference to the literal character within a syntax for expressing regular expressions. There is no single correct isomorphism. Though the point about Regex's being distinct from wildcards just reinforces the idea that regex's are not an obvious concept.
- JackMorgan 13y ago
  > Everyone ain't a programmer. Point taken. I've always associated his blog as a resource for programmers, but a tool like this is perfect for non-programmer power users.
mistermann 13y ago
If buying a tool for $20 gets the job done just as well and saves the "few hours" of learning how to do it so-called "properly", it seems like the correct decision to me. Based purely on this one single comment (which isn't much to go on to be fair) I wouldn't be giving someone like you too much broad authority on a project because you lack wise judgement skills in my opinion. Since you mention laughing at people, you may not be aware of it, or care, but people ("idiot" managers and "idiot" users) might very well laugh at you behind their backs as well. If you lack perspective, the ability to consider issues from the point of view of different stakeholders, you're going to see a lot of idiots around you.
- JackMorgan 13y ago
  You sound quite offended, that was not my intention. If you consider it wise judgment to pay money to spend a few hours to learn a less flexible, leakier abstraction rather than just spending the few hours, and gaining a lifetime skill, learning the high powered, free tool available, that is where we differ. I don't laugh at people who don't know something, quite the contrary, there is little I love more than helping someone grow in knowledge. I laugh at a worldview that celebrates ignorance as if it were a virtue. I have no doubt people laugh at me too, probably because I believe anyone can be better than they are, anyone can improve. I have high expectations for myself and those around me. And that, for a person who chooses a worldview that celebrates ignorance, can only be met with derisive laughter and ad hominem attacks.
  - mistermann 13y ago
    Not offended, just tired of, in my perception, the air of absolute certainty among so many technical people. A bit beyond the scope of this particular discussion, what does offend me is when people (not you perhaps) are constantly learning these life long skills on the client's dime. Some things it is fair/correct/righteous to learn and bill as part of a project, but when it isn't, I'll take the $20 approach every time. It offends me when technical people are dishonest and insist that the "technically correct and proper" way is the path that must be taken, not the approach that should be taken. Or, they don't even inform the client of the option and just secretly make the decision to take the more expensive route. Again, not saying this is you, but it sure as hell happens. By the way, who here is celebrating ignorance? Scott Hanselman?
MichaelGG 13y ago
After using ViEmu with VS, I can't imagine editing blocks or doing code-gen-like tasks without vim's macros.
- JackMorgan 13y ago
  Indeed, vim macros are mind bogglingly powerful for such a small investment of time.
nhebb 13y ago
> Am I missing anything? You can embed javascript in the NimbleText substitution pattern, which lets you go beyond just matching and replacement.
xivSolutions 13y ago
Regex can be painful in cases which go beyond the low-lying, easy ones. Also, people have different innate skills. I am one who does not do so well remembering esoteric character combinations. I use regex frequently enough to understand how it works, and what I need, but without fail, I lack the "muscle memory" to just know what to type when doing much more complex than a simple match. This usually leads me to Google, or to a tool like this. I have similar trouble with odd terminal commands and flags. I am not afraid of them, but it simply not part of my mental make-up to remember them all. The ones I use frequently - no problem. Those I use only occasionally - Google. :-) Let's face it - regex IS HARD if you are not a regex "power user" or if you are the sort, like myself, whose mental map is not optimized for such things.
- JackMorgan 13y ago
  Yeah, I end up using more a tool called vim macros found in vsvim. They are very powerful. There are only really two commands to remember: record and play. I highly recommend them to anyone who doesn't use regex enough to remember them.