I mean who do you think is listening?

The general "parse <your markup language of choice here> with regexen" is such a common topic and misguided notion that solid refutation is important. True, some brick walls are thicker than most, but it's not the brick wall that is being addressed here.

Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond

> is such a common topic and misguided notion that solid refutation is important.

yes, we had plenty similar discussions already. (I'm sure someone keeps a list of such threads up to date. ;)

My concern is rather that marto is exhausting his energy preaching to someone who has never shown any sign of insight or progress.

And if he wants to address others, then linking to older discussions might be more efficient ... for him at least. :)

update

like Why a regex *really* isn't good enough for HTML and XML, even for "simple" tasks

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}