Yes. Regex tend to become rather fast write only. One solution is commenting, but is still complex. What I like to do now (in C) is define parts of it. Just a c

Yes. Regex tend to become rather fast write only. One solution is commenting, but is still complex. What I like to do now (in C) is define parts of it. Just a crude example to get the idea: // STRing: matches anything inside quotes (single or double) #define STR "[\"'](.*)[\"']" // NUMber: matches decimal or hexadecimal numbers #define NUM "([[:digit:]]x?[[:xdigit:]]*)" regcomp(&reg_exp, STR NUM , REG_EXTENDED | REG_ICASE); So at the end I compose the RE with the various parts, which are documented separately.