Re: POSIX regex performance bug in 7.3 Vs. 7.2

Neil Conway <neilc(at)samurai(dot)com> writes:
> Given that this problem isn't a regression, I don't think we need to
> delay 7.3.2 to fix it (of course, a fix for 7.3.3 and 7.4 is essential,
> IMHO).

No, I've had to abandon my original thought that it was a localized bug,
so it's not going to be fixed in 7.3.2.

The real problem is simply that we're up against design limitations of
the existing regex package, which was never designed for wider-than-8-bit
character sets. It's been rather crudely hacked while it was in our
hands (Henry Spencer would probably disown the code if he saw it now ;-))
so that it sorta kinda does MULTIBYTE, but it's slow and I don't think
it's complete either.

I'm about to go off and look at whether we can absorb the Tcl regex
package, which is Spencer's new baby. That will not be a solution for
7.3.anything, but it could be an answer for 7.4.

regards, tom lane