Re: Extending REG-EXP to 2-Dimension.

[ Request for regexp systems that work on "boxes" of text ]


This is a really hard problem that has been discussed once
in the Icon newsgroup.


As far as I know it has not been solved in any way. The problem
is that you need to extend the notion of linearity (characters
following other characters) in 2 dimensions.


This could perhaps be done by using a 'circular' approach,
for instance like this:


                          CCCCC
                          CBBBC
                          CBABC
                          CBBBC
                          CCCCC


So in the expression "ABC", A, B and C are all regexps that
describe properties of a 'circle' of text. These expressions
themselves should be modified to be able to describe circular
structures, and the relations between these circular expressions
should be formalized in some way or other.


Even if these formal problems could be solved, the complexity
of this kind of text analysis will in all probability be huge.


I'd be interested if anyone has any comments or 'pointers'
regarding this idea.


Jan
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