Emacs Lisp Toothpick Syndrome

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Emacs Regex Affair

emacs regex 2025-10-14 1670b
emacs regex 2025-10-14 1670b
emacs bbcode regex 2025-10-14 163f4
emacs bbcode regex 2025-10-14 163f4

5 backslashes

emacs backslash 2016-02-03
emacs backslash 2016-02-03

6 backslashes

emacs regex shell-quote-argument 2025-10-15 18caa
emacs regex shell-quote-argument 2025-10-15 18caa

10 backslashes

emacs regex replace-match-maybe-edit 2025-10-14 2e766
emacs regex replace-match-maybe-edit 2025-10-14 2e766

17 backslashes

emacs regex reftex-label-alist 2025-10-14 2e8bb
emacs regex reftex-label-alist 2025-10-14 2e8bb

For explanation of the above one, see

thanks to reddit discussion. https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/43zov2/todays_xkcd_reminds_me_of_emacs_lisp_regexes/

code oddity

Programing Language String Syntax Problem