I can't imagine finding VerbalExpression regex = regex() .find("a") .capture().find("b").anything().endCapture().th

I can't imagine finding VerbalExpression regex = regex() .find("a") .capture().find("b").anything().endCapture().then("cd").build(); To involve less "cognitive overhead" than /a(b.*)cd/ For example, what is "anything"? (In this case, "anything" can be nothing.) Where does the capture group start/end? (In normally regexp syntax even naive brace matching will usually tell you.)