`re' difficulty?

[Tim Peters]

[David Ascher]
> I don't buy many books either, but Jeffrey Friedl's book ["Mastering
> Regular Expressions"] is IMO one of the few that I own that I think
> are worth the price,

You and/or François may want to invest in a library card <wink>.

> even though its Python knowledge is obsolete and I use regexps as
> sparingly as I possibly can.

Use them for everything!  Then I won't have to field so many regexp
questions <0.9 wink>.

> If nothing else, it is proof that the human mind will delve obsessively
> into arcane knowledge for no other reason than because it can.

That it is.  Is that sufficient basis for buying a book?  I've been toying
for two decades with writing a lengthy but edifying treatise revealing the
most surprising floating-point numbers I have been privileged to know (if
you thought 0.1 was a mystery wrapped in an enigima, you haven't yet lived),
but have thus far held back for fear of starving to death.  Your response
gives me fresh hope!

obsession-is-not-its-own-reward-ly y'rs  - tim