I was not able to reproduce the results 100%. I'm not talking about the actual numbers, of course, but the relative order. I did not observe the difference betw

I was not able to reproduce the results 100%. I'm not talking about the actual numbers, of course, but the relative order. I did not observe the difference between perl and python implementations to the extent Mr.Li reports; however python was still significantly slower than perl. As for hailing RE2 as the ultimate "winner", I'd like to point out that all recursive backtracking implementations are generally slower than DFAs or Thomson NFAs. So, in essence, he merely makes a comparison of the two kinds of algorithms. As for gawk, it'd be very interesting to have some insight on why does it suck so much. :-)