Re: Re: Alternation in Effective Perl Programming Example

[a]

Appears to be (looking at Effective perl) a typo, as the chapter leans heavily on (?: just before the example. You should mention it to merlyn as its not in the errata (neither is the misspelled 'Eart' on page 64 ;-)

a

[a]

And, to the original question: I think the idea is to 'inch along'

  for (split m!("(?:\\\W|.)*?"|/\*|\*/)!) {

will return the pieces ending w/ an escaped non-word char, a single char or the comment begin/end markers. Hmm, an escaped non-word char or a single char in quotes? No, as many \\\w|. as found between quotes. I guess so:

biff = "not a comment /*";
/* marker for not a comment */

won't start $in_comment too early.

a