Aug
04
2005

On The Work Front

C++, PCRE and Regular Expressions in general.

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, August 4, 2005 - 10:11:11 pm
(Posted Under: Geek, Development, Work)
Today marks a calendar month at my new job (and almost a 5th week down). Time has gone blazingly fast. It really doesn't seem like I've been there for that long. And the last three weeks have absolutely flown. We're on the cusp of another Friday, yet it seems like it was only just the weekend. The last 3 have been exactly the same.

The past two days have been interesting, taking on some C++ coding. That's right - some real coding, in a real language. Y'know, object code, linking down to executible binaries. Real Linux development. It's certainly been fun. Professionally, any such work with real languages has been few and far between. Actually, except for writing a proftpd mod in C, to date has been non existant. Everything has basically been scripted stuff (whether it be PHP or Perl, or shell scripting). So, I'm a bit giddy about it.

It's also cool in that the amount of hours I've racked up working in C (obviously outside of work) are literally uncountable, but I comparitively haven't done a lot of C++, so I'm enjoying the exposure to it. I initially avoided C++ by choice, certainly had a thing for C and procedural code, and chose it exclusively. Though in the last few years, I sort of enjoyed the object orientated approach a lot more - both in OO languages I used (Perl, PHP) and even before that emulated OO features in a lot of the latter C code I wrote. I guess 10 years ago I was spectical about the OO thing, but I really dig it these days, and hence enjoy the opportunity to work with C++. Hell, for what I'm currently writing at the moment I could have easily gone with C, but chose C++ because I want to use it and get more exposure to it.

So, while I take pot shots at scripting languages (PHP, Perl etc.), I must admit this - going back to C/C++ I really longed for inbuilt regular expression support! Say what I will about the other languages, their inbuilt regex support is the bomb, and something I've become very relient on. Which is quite intresting in itself, given that at university regular expressions were the bain of my existance - I mean, I failed Computing Theory how times? [wink] But in the last 3 years, not only have I mastered them, but I really love using them. (Now, if Computing Thoery had of been hands on...). I can't think of too much code I've done in the last 3 years that hasn't had at least one regex in it. So that was definately a pain going back to C++. Immediately I had an application for a regex - and no built in support. (Not that I couldn't have solved the problem another way, but it goes to show how quickly I reach for a regex these days).

Of course, this turned out to be cool, as it gave me a platform to play around with PCRE (the Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) library in C++. Something I would otherwise like to play with, and have idly considered, but haven't to date had time to. Pretty cool. Pretty easy too, I like it. Of course, significantly more code than doing a regex in something like Perl or PHP. Language's with built in regex support definately get a thumbs up.

Back to work itself, I'm certainly enjoying being hired as a Linux SME. In my position, Linux is my domain, and I'm really liking that. Not that I haven't provided assistance on Windows matters and whatnot, but being hired specifically as a Linux guy and not having to deal with Windows as my area is definately very cool.

I've already got a reputation around the place of loving Linux, and 'hating Micro$soft'. [wink] Which isn't particularly a new thing. [wink] However, the company boast the fact (a new thing [wink] ), since they were specifically looking for Linux based expertise. Hearing my boss announce 'Mark hates Micro$soft' regularly with a positive tone is definately cool.

All in all very demanding, but I'm having a ball!

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