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in reply to Regexes vs. Maintainability
I think I clearly fall into the category of "not wanting to grok it". It LOOKS painful to comprehend your intentions with some of those regex....BUT as a programmer, if I had to maintain your code, I wouldn't mind having the mother of all regex as long as you very specifically commented what the regex is doing. That way, if something broke, I could apply tests around the regex to determine if it is the cause of the problem. I honestly think you can pull off writing complex regex and neat maintainable code as long as you really do comment well.
Speaking of clear code, I think I prefer the regex in its packed form vs. having the comments in between. It is easier on the mind to read, and since that would force the comments to be in one spot as well, it would make them more clear as well.
All in all, very impressive!!
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