merlyn writes in part here that:
...they've mangled, er, edited it, usually to remove all the jokes

I gotta say that I am part of the silent (majority?) of readers protected by the dour and humorless editors.

Somebody's guidelines (apple's?) suggest that there be no more than (1) joke per chapter and that that joke be in a separate paragraph because:

1. Non native speakers of English are unlikely to get it
2. Jokes obfuscate the base material
3. Few jokes are funny more than once and technical material tends to be read over and over again.

I really should go through the Camel's material on regular expressions 2-3 more times. However, the prospect of even accidentally re-reading those jokes about the bestiary again makes me shudder and consider buying another less jokey book.

Usual disclaimers apply:
The authors of the Camel book are gods, I learned a lot from it, etc, etc.

email: mandog