Looks like the problem is solved, but if you are wanting to grab digits into $1, why not grab digits instead?

s/brad(\d+)bill/brian$1bob/gm
[download]

Also, i am still bummed out by the long-standing fact that this:

perl -le'$foo="bar";print $foo'
[download]

only works for *NIX, while this:

perl -le"$foo='bar';print $foo"
[download]

only works for Win32 ... it's not Perl's fault, which makes me think that we will never have naturally portable one-liners. :(

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)