Modernizing the Syntax of Regular Expressions

Abstract: Context Writing and working with regular expressions could be a slow and tedious task,which is mainly because of its syntax, but also because there exist several different dialectswhich easily could cause confusion. Even though regular expression has been widely used forparsing and programming language design, they are now frequently used for input validationand seen in common applications such as text editors. Objectives The main objectives of our thesis are to determine whether or not a regularexpression language that is more like the surrounding programming language would increaseusability, readability, and maintainability. We will then investigate further into what kind ofimpact this would have regarding e.g, development speed, and what benefits and liabilities amore modernized syntax could introduce. Methods Two different methods were used to answer our research questions, exploratory in-terviews, and experiments. The data from the experiments were collected by screen recordingand a program in the environment we provided to the participant. Results.By doing interviews with developers that use traditional regular expressions on aregular basis, their stories confirm that its syntax is confusing even for developers with alot of experience. Our results from the experiment indicate that a language more like thesurrounding language increases both the overall ease of use and development speed. Conclusions From this research, we can conclude that a regular expression language thatis more like the surrounding programming language does increase usability, readability, andmaintainability. We could clearly see that it had a positive effect on the development speed aswell. Keywords — regular expressions, programming language design, readability