Appallingly Chatty and Unprofessional Style

The author’s unamusing cuteness is a constant distraction. In the single brief section explaining NFA vs. DFA regex engines, for example, we are treated to:

“We (humans with advanced neural nets between our ears) can see that if we’re matching ‘tonight,’ the third alternative is the one .... Despite their brainy origins, a regex-directed engine can’t come to that conclusion ....”

“What this really means may seem vague now, but it will all be spelled out just after the mysteries of life are revealed (in just two pages).”

“(You know, if I could find a way to include ‘It’s not over until the fat lady sings,’ in this paragraph, I would.)”

With phrases like this throughout the text (and even in the table of contents -- one section is entitled, “A Really Crummy Analogy”), one wonders how O’Reilly editors could possibly have OK’ed this immaturity.

The few uses I made of the index suggest many omissions and errors. “\A” for example cites only page 236 (Dec. 1998 printing), although no hint is offered there of its definition. “\c”, for another example, is nowhere to be found. (It is incompletely explained in the text at p. 241.)

The index also reflects indifference to the reader’s time and productivity. A high proportion of entries force a second lookup (“see ...”) by not providing any page numbers themselves.

I found the discussion of subtleties involving matching with the “\G” Multi-Match Anchor clever and informative. The author probably knows his stuff and has things to say. Much of the guilt for the book’s overwhelming defects can be laid at the door of the editors at O’Reilly.