The trick with the alternation is that your regex matches -s delimited by B's, thus slurping them up. The next regex search starts off after the last B, and needs to skip the following -s to find the next B. 

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;

$_ = '------BBBBB-----------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------BBBBBB----BBBB
+BBBB-----------------BBBBBB------------------------------------------
+--------------BBBBBBB---------------BBBBB-----BBBBBBBBB--------------
+----------------------BBBBBBBBB------BBBBBBBBB-----------------------
+-----BBBBBBBBB--------------------------------------BBBBBBBB-------BB
+BBBB---------------------BBBBBBB--------------------------BBBBBBBB---
+-';

my $expected = 'iiiiiiMMMMMooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
+oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooMMMM
+MMiiiiMMMMMMMMoooooooooooooooooMMMMMMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
+iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMMMMMMMoooooooooooooooMMMMMiiiiiMMMMMMMMMoooo
+ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooMMMMMMMMMiiiiiiMMMMMMMMMooooooooooooo
+oooooooooooooooMMMMMMMMMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMMMMMMM
+MoooooooMMMMMMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMMMMMMMooooooooooooooooooooooooooM
+MMMMMMMiiii';

s/(^|B+)(-+)($|B+)/ $1 . ("i" x length($2)) . $3/eg;
s/-/o/g;
s/B/M/g;

say $expected;
say $_;

say $expected eq $_ ? 'yes' : 'no';

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Perl 6 - the future is here, just unevenly distributed

In reply to Re: Tips on how to perform this substitution? by moritz
in thread Tips on how to perform this substitution? by Anonymous Monk

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