# If you’re going to replace regex half-way with UML and expect people to use
a graphical editor, why…

* * *

If you’re going to replace regex half-way with UML and expect people to use a
graphical editor, why not just use real UML and generate regex from it? Anyone
who finds your visualization more accessible than regex is already more
familiar with UML than with regex, after all, and probably already has a
preferred UML editor; anyone who uses a console-based editor (which is to say,
a whole lot of serious developers) won’t be able to use this (and will be
philosophically unwilling to anyhow).

By [John Ohno](https://medium.com/@enkiv2) on [May 16,
2016](https://medium.com/p/7645c58b3ef6).

[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/if-youre-going-to-replace-regex-
half-way-with-uml-and-expect-people-to-use-a-graphical-editor-
why-7645c58b3ef6)

Exported from [Medium](https://medium.com) on September 18, 2020.