Yes, I am talking about using regexes where a "standard" parser would use getc() and switch statements all over the place. You can't just write a clever regex

Yes, I am talking about using regexes where a "standard" parser would use getc() and switch statements all over the place. You can't just write a clever regex and wrap it in a while loop and have a parser to go; as you mention, this is theoretically impossible.