Re^3: utf weirdness in regex

[hbo]

But the period matches any character if it isn't escaped.

/[\w\s\.]+/ # one or more word, space or period characters

/[\w\s.]+/  # one or more word. space or *any* characters

/.+/        # same as above

[kelan]

Note that inside a character class, a period is not special: it means just period. So this:

/[\w\s.]+/

would match one or more of (word chars, space chars, periods) in any combination.

In other words, your first two examples are equivalent, not your second two.