I heard from a little bird that people were conspiring against me on Saturday evening, to help write a Perl book. There were two rumors I heard: Mastering Regular Expressions, 2nd Ed.; and the Perl Puzzle Book.

I would love to write a book about Perl. Even moreso, a book about Perl-compatiable regexes (PCREs). And even moreso, a book about all the wonderful things you can do with regexes in Perl. I don't think I could fill J. Friedl's shoes to produce the second edition of the Hip Owls book; I'm not well versed in other implementations of regexes, and I must say that the book was my first introduction to NFA and DFA. Before I read that book, I just used regexes. I didn't "know" them.

So here is my verdict. I want to write a regex book. I want to write about sexeger, and explain. I want to update the MRE chapter on Perl's regexes, since a lot has changed. I want to make a source of Perl regex knowledge other than perlre and perlretut. I think something like "Learning Perl Regexes" (complete with exercises and all) would be a good book to have. I think "The Perl Puzzle Book" would be an excellent idea too, and I could contribute to that more than just regex gems.

I'm a college student. I have classes to deal with (or I will next semester). But I won't drop off the face of the Perl-planet while I'm at college. Perhaps I could write a book in that time, with the help of some other fanatics. I'm up for the challenge. Who's with me?

(Note: the title of this node is "japhy and Mr. E", or "MRE".)

japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

In reply to japhy and mystery by japhy

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