The idea behind the method seems to be easy conversion to using regular expressions, but let's say I use the new() method and plan for possible use of regular expressions.
include std/wildcard.e
sequence expr = wildcard:new("ABC*")
? wildcard:is_match(expr, "John Doe")
To convert to Regular Expression, you need to add an include, change the variable type, change the namespace and update the pattern (they are incompatible).
include std/regex.e
regex expr = regex:new("ABC.*")
? regex:is_match(expr, "John Doe")
and that is if you want to simply do a is_match w/the same type of pattern. Chances are you are changing to regex to do more advanced matches and possibly new methods.