From: Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@...>
Date: 2002-02-14T01:54:40+09:00
Subject: Re: simple XML parsing (greedy / non-greedy

On Wed, 13 Feb 2002 14:39:00 +0100, Markus Jais <mjais@web.de> wrote:

>the ? affects only the "*" not the whole regexp.
>you should find this in the pickaxe book in the chapter "Standard Types"

Thanks! The operative word is "should".

A) I didn't find the two occurrences of the word greedy in the whole
book, and

B) I didn't see that .*? was enough to make the whole regexp stop at the
first match of some other part of the pattern. 

I can only plead inexperience with regexps and long and faithful
service.

Ronald E Jeffries
http://www.XProgramming.com
http://www.objectmentor.com
I'm giving the best advice I have. You get to decide whether it's true for you.