Regular expression module(s)?

[littlebigman]

Hello,

The wiki doesn't have a top-level page on using regular expressions, but there are a couple of threads in the forum archives.

Am I correct in understanding that 1) Freebasic has include files for two regex engines (\examples\regex\: PCRE and TRE), and 2) the source of the libraries must be downloaded and compiled by the user?

If true, is there a tutorial on how to set up a compiler on Windows, and compile sources?

Thank you.

[St_W]

I compiled PCRE about a year ago, feel free to use that:

compiled and uploaded the latest version (of the v1 branch), which is currently 8.44
https://users.freebasic-portal.de/stw/f ... static.zip
tried to use the same config as the older version; untested; built with gcc 7.3.0 / msys2

if you were looking for pcre2 instead, which is currently at version 10.36, i compiled & uploaded that as well (same config/compiler):
https://users.freebasic-portal.de/stw/f ... static.zip

libtre doesn't seem to get updated anymore, my libtre 0.8.0 build from 2016 still seems to be the latest available version:
https://users.freebasic-portal.de/stw/f ... re-080.zip


Both PCRE and TRE are written in C.
To compile it yourself you need a build environment (suggest MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org/ ) and a suitable toolchain (ideally use the same that was used for building FreeBasic, see the Releases page: https://freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... 47#p288547 ). Also build tools like make, CMake, etc. might be required. Most often you run either a "configure" script (GNU autotools) or CMake configure first, then "make" afterwards.
I usually included the configurable files used during the build in the archives above.
When I do it next time I might write down a step by step guide. For now (without actually trying it out) I can only give general instructions.

[littlebigman]

Thanks. Looks like all it takes is copying the .dll and .a files into Freebasic's \lib\win32\, and including either regex.bi (PCRE, PCRE2) or tre.bi (TRE).

Which regex engine do you recommend?

--
Edit

"The program can't start because tre.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."

--
Edit

fbc -p c:\Apps\FreeBASIC-1.09.0\lib\win32 c:\match.bas
=> DLL not found

fbc -static c:\match.bas
=>
c:\Apps\FreeBASIC-1.09.0\bin\win32\ld.exe: cannot find -lmsvcrt
c:\Apps\FreeBASIC-1.09.0\bin\win32\ld.exe: cannot find -lkernel32
c:\Apps\FreeBASIC-1.09.0\bin\win32\ld.exe: cannot find -luser32

--
Edit:

It runs if I copy those files where the compiled file lives, but there must be a way to tell FB to look for them in its own directories.

• libtre.a
• libtre.dll.a
• tre.dll