scanner interface limitations

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-30 17:11:21

Hi. I'm trying to build a new docutils tool for processing 
RestructuredText. I'm trying to write a scanner:

class rst-scanner : common-scanner
{
rule pattern ( )
{
return "^\\w*\\.\\.\\w+(include|image|figure)::\w+(.*)" ;
}
}

The problem is that the 2nd parenthesized group identifies the filename; 
the first one should be ignored, and there's no way to express that 
nicely. I'm guessing that this hack might work:

class rst-scanner : common-scanner
{
rule pattern ( )
{
return "^\\w*\\.\\.\\w+include::\w+(.*)"
"^\\w*\\.\\.\\w+image::\w+(.*)"
"^\\w*\\.\\.\\w+figure::\w+(.*)"
;
}
}

But really, there ought to be a more general mechanism, shouldn't there?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com