regex (from TODO)

In the PostgreSQL TODO is "Get faster regex() code from Henry Spencer..".
I look at current available regex used (a example) in apache, php, .etc. But
if I look at changes (via diff) between PostgreSQL's regex and more new
regex in PHP4 it is very same. A differentions are that in new regex code
are all values marks as 'register' and this new regex not support MULTIBYTE.
It is without any relevant changes (or 'register' is really fastly?).
What means TODO? 
The PG's regex use malloc -- why not MemoryContext?
                        Karel