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Postings from April 2000
>I think I understand why you've added this new paragraph, but I'm not >at all sure that it is the right thing to do - I think there is a >danger that it will make it more difficult for the gentle reader >later to understand how the backtracking mechanism (along with the >combinatorial rules of a few simple operators) entirely determine >which match is found. I have no replacement to offer, however. I added it because people misunderstand greed. They can't understand why "greed" =~ /(e*)/ successfully finds no e's, and when you explain, they fight with you because "it's not documented". You have to mention the supremacy of eagerness when you're doing greed, and also explain that only quantifiers, not patterns, are greedy. People aren't going to read the backtracking section; they just aren't. But they'll read what "*" does, though. --tomThread Previous | Thread Next