On Sat, Feb 04, 2023 at 12:32:09PM +0100, demerphq wrote: > > I think this is a perennial question for portable software: is it better > > to be consistent across platforms (by shipping our own regex engine), or > > consistent with other programs on the same platform (by using the system > > regex). > > Personally I think that while this seems to be an impartial reading of > the question at hand I think it frames the debate in a way that has > the potential to bias[1] the discussion in favour of a particular > policy outcome[2]. It implies that all other things are equal between > the two options presented, and frames the question as something that > comes down to personal preference between one form of consistency and > another. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply one side or the other, or even that they were equal. I more just meant: you can make arguments either way. _I_ don't have a strong opinion there, but you have made many of those arguments in your email. And everything you said was pretty sensible. I did want to mention one thing, though: > It also assumes that being consistent with other programs on > the same platform is inherently beneficial, when that doesn't seem to > be clearly established[2]. This isn't consistency per se, but one problem that arises when a portable program ships its own implementation is that its implementation sucks more than the system one. And that was the case with 1819ad327; our compat/regex was worse than the system with respect to multi-byte characters. But yes, if your point is: "well, don't ship a crappy implementation", then I agree that is a way to mitigate that problem. ;) -Peff
