Tom,
> which means that Robert's complaint about treating no-pattern
> differently from pattern falls to the ground. It's exactly what
> \d has done for years, and nobody has complained about that.
Just because they haven't voiced loud complaints doesn't mean that they
haven't been *confused* by it. I know that I've been confused by the
behaviour of \d before, which is why I pretty much never use it.
I think a search of -general and -newbie would be educational on the
number of people who are confused by the shortcuts.
Or, to put it another way, the fact that we screwed up in the past is
hardly a justification to do it in the future.
--Josh