Just fudge things a little :) 

#!/usr/bin/perl

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1196089

use strict;
use warnings;

$\ = $/;

my $dict = 'b';
$_ = '*' . 'a' x (9e4 - 1e4) . "\n";

my($head, $tail) = map length( $_ // '' ), split /\*/, $_;

s/\?/[$dict]/g;
s/\*/ [^$dict ]* /;

my $qr = qr/^$_$/;

substr($_, $head, 0, ' '),
  substr($_, -$tail, 0, ' '),
  print $_ =~ $qr ? "YES" : "NO"
    for 'a' x (0 + 1e4) . 'a' x (9e4 - 1e4) . "\n";

[download]

This avoids the massive backtrack this particular problem encounters.

In reply to Re: the case where regex seems to work slower by tybalt89
in thread the case where regex seems to work slower by rsFalse

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