Of course, you're probably right.

My problem is simply that I usually turn to regex when I need to get something done (and learning it just gets in the way of doing something more interesting), rather than sitting down and taking the time to learn it properly.

I'm only half sure what you're on about with that middle paragraph. :S

Most times when people worry about greediness, they should actually be using lazy quantifiers, or a negative character class.

(If I was designing regex from scratch, I'd either make lazy the default, or have no default, so that people had to learn there are three different modes, and when each is appropriate.)

If you're using back references a lot, you're likely getting into the territory where a simple parser is likely the better choice (probably using a number of smaller, more basic regexes).

sigh, yes I know I wasn't paying attention where I chopped up the code and I was generalising broadly, :-(( sorry I wasn't up to PB standard, but I didn't have time to write a dissertation :-P

PS have you considered a career as a QSA ? :-)

I still stand by regexbuddy it does a nice job of validating regex against different regex flavours.

I'm not new, I are extreme olds, I even remember teh pcf forum on delphi.

I also know your not called LUCY either Xen,

I'll only partake of tea if it's at least Assam and nice and strong.
otherwise you can keep your dishwater ;-)

Guessed who I am yet ????

But as a QSA you'd get to be picky all day and get paid lots and lots and lots I thought you'd like that.

At 3am when your seeing double a bit of syntax highlighting regardless of the colours makes life a lot easier, especially when your stuck with fixing a bitch of a SIEM collector plugin.

it is a bit steep but the others are an order of magnitude less helpful.

edit ------ heres that clue for Xen-------

I works in Security
I don't live south of London or north of Birmingham.

<natural paranoia>
can say any more teh fears they hurt
</natural paranoia>

no Drew, I'm more likely to be moneypenny :-)

It is I, Marie.

<takes nice cup of assam>
ahhhhh, thank you.. you make good tea.

Thank you :-), I do try to endeavour to make mostly insecure things slightly more secure than they were before I got there.

The easiest way I found is to break the fingers of all the users, they don't do it again for at least a couple of months.
That and the hospital bills are usually less than the cost of the equipment :-P