> It'd be nice if we had some sort of representative benchmark for
> real-world uses of Python regexps. The JS guys have all pitched in to
> create such a thing for uses of regexps on thew web. I don't know of
> any such thing for Python.

See http://hg.python.org/benchmarks/, there are regex benchmarks there.

> I agree that a Python implementation wouldn't be useful for some
> cases. On the other hand, I believe it would be fine (or at least
> tolerable) for some others. I don't know the ratio between the two.

I think the ratio would be something like 2% tolerable :)

As I said to Ezio and Georg, I think adding the regex module needs a
PEP, even if it ends up non-controversial.