[README.md] Add more guide lines for regular expressions

[youtube-dl] / README.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a1d2904c051d743ebdcf9ee3eaf1d2baee3315ef..bdc5faeec7bc68e91f7caf45527f6e82226ea89c 100644 (file)
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1025,15 +1025,19 @@ After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can fo
 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
 6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc. Note that tests with `only_matching` key in test's dict are not counted in.
 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L94-L303). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
-8. Make sure your code follows [youtube-dl coding conventions](#youtube-dl-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8). Also make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions claimed supported by youtube-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+.
-9. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
+8. Make sure your code follows [youtube-dl coding conventions](#youtube-dl-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](http://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart):
+
+        $ flake8 youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
+
+9. Make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions claimed supported by youtube-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+.
+10. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
 
         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
         $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
         $ git push origin yourextractor
 
-10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
+11. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
 
 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
 
@@ -1129,11 +1133,33 @@ title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
 
 This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`.
 
-### Make regular expressions flexible
+### Regular expressions
+
+#### Don't capture groups you don't use
+
+Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
+
+##### Example
+
+Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything anyway.
+
+Correct:
+
+```python
+r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
+```
+
+Incorrect:
+```python
+r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
+```
+
 
-When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy and flexible.
+#### Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
+
+When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
  
-#### Example
+##### Example
 
 Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code: