Thank you, my friend. That is precisely the level, type, and depth of answer I was looking for. There's lots in there that I'll need to research, but that's where the meat of the problem is--in the learning.

My, but it's been a long time since I formally studied regular expressions and finite automata. I can remember, vaguely, remembering being good at them. But I can't even remember being good at them, and I'm certainly not good at them now.

Ullman? I TA'd Introduction to Computer Science for Dr. Ullman, back in the day. Smart, smart man. And now I'm heading back to the well to tank myself up. Small world. :-)

Thanks again for the help, blokhead. And if/when I actually get some working code out of this in the direction of your above-mentioned "regular language playground module", I'll be sure to post about it here.

Gratefully yours,

Mickey.