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From: worley@compass.com (Dale Worley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Is this a bug?
Message-ID: <1990Aug9.155120.2703@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 9 Aug 90 15:51:20 GMT
Sender: mmdf@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU (Uvaarpa Mail System)
Reply-To: worley@compass.com
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 20

I tried to write a program with the following regexp:

	/(^\s*$)|(^---)/

That is, match any line containing only whitespace, or beginning with
'---'.  (Are ^ and $ allowed other than at the beginning or end of the
regexp?)  Perl gives the strange error message:

	/(^\s*|(^---)/: unmatched () in regexp at ss line 3.

Where did the missing ')' go?

Actually, it was probably assumed to be part of a '$)' variable.  (Can
one use '$/' as a variable is a regexp?)

What is going on here?  What *should* be going on here?

Dale Worley		Compass, Inc.			worley@compass.com
--
LA, truth to tell, is not much different from a pretty girl with the clap.