<snip massive='true' />
/^[\w.-]+$/ and !/[^\w.-]/ have one major difference (and I am kicking
myself for not seeing it until now). The former requires that at least
one character must exist. !/[^\w.-]/ is equivalent to /[^[\w.-]*$/.
However, this can be overcome by saying !(/^$/ or /[^\w.-]/) and it
still has one advantage over /^[\w.-]+$/: the values of $`, $&, and $'
(everything before the match, the match, and everything after the match
respectivly). This allows the creation of useful messages such as:
if (/^$/ or /[^\w.-]/) {
print "ilegal character ($&) in:$_\n";
}
or
if (/^$/ or /[^\w.-]/) {
print "cannot use character ($&) in:$`<b>$&</b>$'\n";
}
--
Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 18th day of Confusion in the YOLD 3167
Kallisti!
