On Thu, 26 Sep 2002 01:05:32 +0200, Detlef Lindenthal wrote:
>-- My brother uses to say, he does not like and learn
>Perl and RegEx because they are so "cryptic" !!! --
>But I know that in most cases they have a very clear and
>economic concept. --
Hmm... When you get used to them, regexes aren't so hard any more. It's
economic rather than cryptic. But you do have to get used to the meaning
of each keyphrase in a regex, and you have to memorize them. There is no
other way.
You have to memorize all other stuff as well, don't you? Words like
"for", "if", "while", "until", "unless", "foreach".... all are very much
self-documenting, but still you have to memorize what they're for. It
only *looks* easier.
Start with the dot. Add "+", "*" and "?", and finally, add "(...)" for
capturing, plus the notion to escape all non-word characters with a
backslash in ordere to "disarm" them, and you're on your way. Next add
char classes, "[...]", and there you have all the basics.
--
Bart.
