A few years ago I would have agreed, and I still do in general. But now I'm not sure that Perl grammars aren't up to the task and still as 'regular' as PCRE. H

A few years ago I would have agreed, and I still do in general. But now I'm not sure that Perl grammars aren't up to the task and still as 'regular' as PCRE. However you still shouldn't be writing your own unless you're writing an email validation module of some kind. Laziness is a virtue after all.