Hello, everyone.
I have noticed that several people are mentioning the complicated topic of regular expressions, in how they relate specifically to The Bat!, of course.
I have played with Perl on and off for several years, but regular expressions have, I candidly admit, intimidated me. (After I installed Linux on my multi- boot PC a couple of years ago, I thought that Linux would provide me with the chance to "get serious" about learning Perl, which I have tried before -- first, when my only computer was a pre-Mac-OS-X Macintosh and only MacPerl was available and, later, when DzSoft <http://www.dzsoft.com/> released its excellent Perl editor for Windows -- but people then started advising me to learn PHP instead.) ;-)
I do not want to write a message that should be on the TBOT list, but I did want to mention a book, in English, if you are serious about learning regular expressions, and do not mind working hard. The book is O'Reilly's 'Mastering Regular Expressions', by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl:
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/index.html
The book is four years old (still in its first edition, 1997), unfortunately:
Regular expressions, a powerful tool for manipulating text and data, are found in scripting languages, editors, programming environments, and specialized tools. In this book, author Jeffrey Friedl leads you through the steps of crafting a regular expression that gets the job done. He examines a variety of tools and uses them in an extensive array of examples, with a major focus on Perl....
O'Reilly's 'Perl Pocket Reference', by Johan Vromans, is, however, in its fourth edition (2002).
Of course, I am still struggling through Friedl's tome, and there are probably some great Web sites on regular expressions that would be more suitable for the casual user.
I hope that this information is of help to someone!
Thank you!
Cordially,
David -- "A program is a device used to convert data into error messages."
_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement
________________________________________________ Current version is 3.0.1.33 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
