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in reply to Re: Alternation in Effective Perl Programming Example
in thread Alternation in Effective Perl Programming Example

Appears to be (looking at Effective perl) a typo, as the chapter leans heavily on (?: just before the example. You should mention it to merlyn as its not in the errata (neither is the misspelled 'Eart' on page 64 ;-)

a

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Re: Re: Re: Alternation in Effective Perl Programming Example
by a (Friar) on Dec 07, 2000 at 21:50 UTC
    And, to the original question: I think the idea is to 'inch along'
    for (split m!("(?:\\\W|.)*?"|/\*|\*/)!) {
    will return the pieces ending w/ an escaped non-word char, a single char or the comment begin/end markers. Hmm, an escaped non-word char or a single char in quotes? No, as many \\\w|. as found between quotes. I guess so:
    biff = "not a comment /*"; /* marker for not a comment */
    won't start $in_comment too early.

    a