Forums Feature Suggestions /filter -gk and $regml

It seems that with /filter -gk, the called alias can not use $regml() to make back references to the fields in the filter's regex. I think it would be a nice addition if it could, similar to "on $*:TEXT" events for example.

I'm not sure this would be easy to implement, because the matching lines are not passed to the -k alias 'on the fly'. Instead, they are added into an internal cache, from which the alias receives them once the filtering process is done. For us this means that $regml() will always hold the value of the last match.

This example shows what I mean:

alias test {

• write f_file A | write f_file B | write f_file C
  filter -fkg f_file f_alias /(.)/g
  .remove f_file

}

alias -l f_alias {

• linesep
  var %a = $regml(0), %b = 0
  echo -s Captured %a subpattern(s)
  while %a > %b { inc %b | echo -s - $regml(%b) }
  linesep

}

Hmm good point...I can see the problems that would arise if the alias were to be called on-the-fly. Too bad then!