I'm reading 3rd version of this book. I think this issue has not been mentioned in the book. Anyway I use two simple techniques (alternation order and plus to prevent backtracking when parentheses are leaved for star) to optimize first regex.

I read mentioned topic "Benchmarks aren't everything" but I think that it is not the source of problem in this case.

In reply to Re^3: Strange behaviour of the regex engine ( Benchmarks aren't everything ) by thof
in thread Strange behaviour of the regex engine by thof

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