RegEx help pls - Teh Forum

<body> <div id="header"> <span class="left"> <span class="back"><a href="lthread_list.php?webtag=DEFAULT"><span class="image mobile_back" title="Back"></span></a></span> <span class="image mobile_logo" title="Beehive Forum Logo"></span> </span> <ul> <li> <a class="reply_all" href="lpost.php?webtag=DEFAULT&reply_to=41616.0&return_msg=41616.14"> <span class="image mobile_reply_all"></span><span class="text">Reply to All</span> </a> </li> <li> <a class="navigation" href="#"> <span class="image mobile_navigation"></span><span class="text">Show messages</span> </a> </li> <li> <a class="main" href="#"><span class="image mobile_menu" title="Menu"></span> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="menu main"> <ul> <li><a href="lthread_list.php?webtag=DEFAULT">Messages</a></li> <li><a href="lpm.php?webtag=DEFAULT">Inbox</a></li> <li><a href="lsearch.php?webtag=DEFAULT">Search</a></li> <li><a href="llogon.php?webtag=DEFAULT">Login</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="menu navigation"><a href="lmessages.php?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=41616.1">1–10</a><a href="lmessages.php?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=41616.11">11–14</a></div> <div id="page_content"> <h3 class="thread_title"><a href="index.php?webtag=DEFAULT&amp;msg=41616.14">RegEx help pls</a> </h3> <div id="messages" data-navigation="41616_14_14_10"> <a name="a41616_14"></a><div class="message" id="message_41616_14"> <div class="message_header"> <div class="message_from"> From: Peter (BOUGHTONP)<span class="message_time">31 Oct 2015 20:43</span> <div class="clearer"></div> </div><div class="message_to">To: Kenny J (WINGNUTKJ) <span><span class="image post_read" title="Read: 2 Nov 2015 10:51"></span></span> <span class="message_count">14 of 14</span><div class="clearer"></div> </div> </div> <div class="message_links"> <a href="lmessages.php?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=41616.14">41616.14</a> In reply to <a href="lmessages.php?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=41616.13">41616.13</a></div> <div class="message_body"> What? No, I wasn't saying it had anything to do with regex itself. <p>If developers don't understand the relatively simple concepts involved in regex, it's no surprise they don't understand and correctly apply the more advanced concepts found in complex programming. </p><p>Lack of understanding of requirements is definitely another problem, as is lack of testing (both automated and human). </p><p>Or put another way: most developers don't know what the problem is, don't really know how to solve it, and don't want to verify their thrown together mess actually does what was asked for, beyond very superficial and cursory one-off checks. </p><p>Not certain what lack of review oversight means? </p><br /><p><i>> It's an arcane and very compact syntax with very little in common to natural language</i> </p><p>That's the thing - it's not <em>really</em> any worse than many other computer languages, when you take the whitespace away. </p><p>These are just as gibberish to a newbie or non-programmer as a regex is: </p><pre> var url=$('a[href^=#]:eq(0)').val(); <?=((int)$_POST['c'])?:__('none')?> </pre> <p>You might not write code like that, but equally regex can be written with whitespace and comments too (and it's a shame that's not the default). </p><pre> # match entire string ^.*$ # don't match video files (?<! \.(?:mov|mpg|mp4) ) </pre> <p>A contrived example, and that first comment is akin to an "increment by one" line, but it hopefully demonstrates the problem is less the language. </p><p>The second comment is more the sort that should be written - explaining the <em>intent</em> of the code, so if there's a bug then the idiot in six months time has a chance of knowing whether something unusual is deliberate or the cause. (Of course, any deliberately unusual behaviour should also have suitable positive and negative test cases to prevent regression.) </p></div> <div class="message_footer"> <div class="message_footer_links"><a href="lpost.php?webtag=DEFAULT&reply_to=41616.14&return_msg=41616.14" class="reply"><span class="image post"></span>Reply</a></div> <div class="message_vote_form" data-msg="41616.14"> <span class="rating">0/0</span> <span class="image vote vote_down vote_down_off" title="Vote Down"></span> <span class="image vote vote_up vote_up_off" title="Vote Up"></span> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> </body>