Why does replace-regexp backwards work so differently?
Why does replace-regexp backwards work so differently?
C-u - M-x replace-regexp \w+
The - prefix arg replaces backwards but it hits one char at a time, as if the plus sign weren't there. The same replacement forwards (without the prefix arg) does hit one word at a time. What's going on, @emacs@lemmy.ml?
Because once it hits the ultimate character of a word, \w+ matches that (single) character, next time it matches the penultimate character, etc. You'd need \W\w+ to make it look far enough back to the beginning of the word.