Bug(?) in aliases

[Carol Haynes]

Here are a couple more settings

lookup
(.*)
Encarta $$1 |http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=$$1
Britannica $$1 |http://www.britannica.com/search?query=$$1&go_button.x=10&go_button.y=5&ct=



Strangely I find if I type:

lookup Einstein                (I was feeling highbrow)

not only does it come up with the expected:

Encarta Einstein
Britannica Einstein

but it also comes up with all of the "define Einstein" results (based on your dictionary dist) but not the "search Einstein" results (based on my web search list).

Any idea why this should be?

I tried various alternative alias names but it made no difference??

Using build 1.07.06 by the way.

[mouser]

make sure you are specifying the regular expression "lookup (.*)" all on one line in the right place:

[mouser]

any chance you were specifying it incorrectly and that was explanation for bug?

[kfitting]

Wow... that's a fancy screenshot.  You ever hear of a program called "Screenshot Captor"?? 

Kevin

[mouser]

hehe

note carol that the regular expression contains the "define" or "search" word on it - i suspect you were just speciying "lookup" as the alias group name and "(.*)" in the regular expression field.  i know its confusing because of the group name thing, but that is actually independent from the regular expression and is used both for naming purposes and for separate patten matching.

[Carol Haynes]

Need I say more 

[mouser]

not at all - i can see easily why you did what you did.

you know what someone should make that i haven't seen yet? a reverse-regular-expression generator, that would take a regular expression and generate sample strings that match it - that would be a great way to test a regular expression..  maybe i'll look into it a little later.

[nontroppo]

IIRC both The Regex Coach (do try it if you haven't) and RegexBuddy can reverse a regex into its constituant steps...

[mouser]

yes but can it generate a long list of example strings that match an abitrary regex you type.