/Perl M[ou]ngers/ # char class version
/Perl M(o|u)ngers/ # alternation version
Relatively easy to match the right people. But if we mix up Mongers,
Mungers, and Monks all in one place we will have a less gracefull
time of matching desirable PM variants. I mean, we'll most certainly
want to match any of these:
Perl Mongers
Perl Mungers
Perl Monks
But this permissiveness certainly shouldn't extend to those who
refer to themselves as:
Perl Munks
Perl Mungs
Perl Mongs
Perl Monkers
Perl Munkers
So the question is, what can we come up with that retains
the simple elegance of /Perl M(o|u)ngers/ (or its character class
equivelant) and ensures that we aren't matching one of the more
hideous deviants?
Well, a couple of obvious attempts might be:
( /Perl M[ou]ngers/ || /Perl Monks/ )
/Perl (?:M[ou]ngers|Monks)/
Aaack! Just look at all those duplicated letters going to waste!
/Perl M(?:onk|[ou]nger)s/
Bletch, still pretty ugly -- and look, both the 'o' and the 'n' are
still wastefully repeated on both sides of the alternation (as if we
had an endless supply of ascii letters, sheesh!). This simply
won't do. Therefore, in my humble opinion, our only option in this
matter is to screw simplicity and elegance and go for the minimum
alphabetical liability:
/Perl M(?:(o)|(u))n(?(2)(g)|(?:(g)|(k)))(?(5)|er)s/;
Much better, don't you think? And only one extra 'g' wasted. Now,
before you start screaming about how this will deplete our supply of
much needed parentheses, don't panic -- rumour has it, Larry Wall
been secretly siphoning off parentheses from old Lisp programs for
years! (sshhh).
.
(just(another(perl(wacko))))
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