The Open Source Zone

As a beginner, every little bit helps and I am certainly glad that the "intelligents" such as Mr. Forta takes the time to address us who know so much less. Also, I really did enjoy both the "get to the point" and brevity of the book but, perhaps I missed something, because I was getting confused between the "TEXT" portion of his examples and the "RESULT" portions - they were always exactly the same! Once the "REGEX" portion was applied against the "TEXT", wasn't the "RESULT" portion supposed to show only what was filtered? This made the examples meaningless for me. Aside from that, the print quality wasn't there; it seemed that at some point it had become over-xeroxed at the office. Overall, at the very least, I believe the book to be a good primer. I hope to see Mr. Forta follow up somehow. Also, if you get this book, make sure to look up the 19 erratas on his website.

I don't know if every copy of the book is like this, but mine was printed so faintly that the highlighting of the examples was too faint to see. What this means is that the examples in the book (and there are a lot of them... that is the primary method of teaching in the book) are useless without the accompanying text. The accompanying text is quite good and thorough, but I wouldn't recommend this book at all unless you're sure they've fixed the problem at the printer.

After reading this clearly written little book you will have a good understanding of what regex expressions are all about as well as a serviceable command of syntax. Follow it up with Friedl's "Mastering Regular Expressions," which will be a breeze with Forta's crash course under your belt, and you will be well on your way to guru-dom.

If you need to understand regular expressions that is explained in laymans terms, you will like this book. This book is perfect for beginners and gives you a good start in understanding how regex works. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy way to learn regular expressions.

In the book introduction the author correctly states that most regexp texts and tutorial tend to concentrate just on the "easy" part: regexp syntax illustrated with a few examples, and do not give the reader even a little mastery in the art of using them. He then proceeds to writing another short and sweet useless syntax illustration. This "book" has no more useful material than you can find in a free web tutorial, so I suggest you save your money and stick with those, or go for a book that's worth some money: "Mastering Regular Expressions" by O' Reilly.