Warning: this article is slightly technical and you can just ignore it if you have no interest in pattern matching using Regex (regular expressions) with Notifier.
TLDR: We will continue to support RegEx.
I was surprised that almost every person using RegEx reached out to me via email! This is what we call a very vocal minority! 🤣
So, it motivated me to try to find a quick solution.
A few years ago when we first started even supporting regex I wanted to use the Google re2 library to do so. This is a fast regular expression library that is specifically designed handle to regular expressions from “untrusted” users. However when I tried to use it I ran into all kinds of crazy compilation errors and it was a nightmare to try to install in production.
So, since we had no users I just decided to use the regex library built into the programming language we use and just not worry about it. I figured no one would use Notifier so it was a non-issue.
Today though I tried it and it installed just fine! Tested it with a regex expression that I know trips up our regular code and it worked fine and simply didn’t support the match.
I am also going to be separating the regex matching engine from our regular text matching so that there is no way a long running regex (which should not be possible with re2 anyway) can affect the rest of the system.
The changes and code for this will go out later tonight.
I am excited we can continue to support RegEx! The original name for Notifier was actually Grep Reddit. Strangely also, the image you see of the RegEx T-Shirt above I actually designed years ago. No, that is not a joke. You can buy it here.
Every now and then I still get a few dollars deposited into my bank account from people buying this on Redbubble. 🤣