> m/([^c]*c)/ will only gobble up until it finds a c, because the c won't
> satisfy ^c; then it matches the c. No backtracking. The non-greedy version (m/(.*?c)/) will
> match zero characters, and then look for a c; then match 1 character, and then look
> for a c; then match match 2 characters, and look for a c; and so on.

This seems to indicate that m/(.*?c)/ and m/([^c]*c)/ will always match the same strings, but the first will be far fatster (in _all_ cases, that I can see at least). So why isn't the first optimized into the second?

I'm probably not seeing somthing here.

Thanks,
James Mastros,
Just Another Perl Initate