Re: lpeg.Cg, lpeg.Cb, and how to visualize what they do

[Sean Conner <sean@...>]

It was thus said that the Great Eduardo Ochs once stated:
> On Wed, 16 Aug 2023 at 12:20, Sean Conner <sean@conman.org> wrote:
> > (...)
> 
> Hi Sean,
> 
> > I don't see these as different, due to the fact that
> >
> >         (a * b) * c     =       a * (b * c)
> 
> try this:
> 
>   foo = function (str) return setmetatable({str}, foo_mt) end
>   foo_mt = {
>     __tostring = function (a) return a[1] end,
>     __mul = function (a,b) return foo(format("(%s%s)", a[1], b[1])) end,
>   }
>   = (foo"a" * foo"b") * foo"c"   --> "((ab)c)"
>   = foo"a" * (foo"b" * foo"c")   --> "(a(bc))"
> 
> The associativity of the multiplication in Lua is not a "fact".

  Couter example:

	local lpeg = require "lpeg"

	local function HEREt(tag)
	  return lpeg.Cmt(lpeg.P"",function(subject,pos)     
	    io.stderr:write(string.format("%s: %s\n",tag,subject:sub(pos,pos+40)))  
	    return pos
	  end)
	end
	
	local a = HEREt"a" * lpeg.C"a"
	local b = HEREt"b" * lpeg.C"b"
	local c = HEREt"c" * lpeg.C"c"

	local p1 = (a * b) * c
	local p2 = a * (b * c)

	print("p1",p1:match"abc")
	print("p2",p2:match"abc")

  The two expressions parse the same way, with the same results (and yes,
you can remove the HEREt() calls to avoid Cmt() and still get the same
result).

> > These are expressions ... what's a "subpattern"?  Again,
> >
> >       (a * b) * c     =       a * (b * c)
> 
> Is that a honest question?

  Yes, it was.  Thank you for the explanation.

  -spc