Here the link to another great free regular expression tool.
http://weitz.de/files/regex-coach.exe
Strange though all of a sudden I am having problem with running the other free regular expression tool that I installed earlier namely the ‘Regulator’. It was running fine till one fine day it no longer work. The application reported fatal error when I launch the program. I reinstalled the free package again and the same fatal error happened. I suspect some files are corrupted but I am unable to pinpoint the root cause of the problem. One moment it was working fine, the next moment the entire application crash when it is launched.
I have no choice but to use ‘Regex-Coach’ application tool instead since I am unable to resolve the ‘Regulator’ application crash issue. Anyway I am quite impress with ‘Regex-Coach’ application tool. It is equally user friendly and as powerful as the standard ‘Regulator’ software package.
Okay, I’ve been doing some reading on regular expressions. It is interesting though that not many Webmasters are familiar with regular expressions. Software programming involving regular expressions seems more like an art with various rules and regulations pertaining to syntax’s.
One of the key factor to understanding regular expressions is by trying out and observe the RE (regular expression) actions on target strings. I found one easy free tool from the Internet which is good for user to learn and even master RE. Check it out at http://regexlib.com/Resources.aspx
‘The Regulator’ is one of the best regular expression tool that I’ve ever used. It is free and very powerful.
The author and developer of this tool ‘Roy Osherove’ must be given strong credits and thumbs up for providing such a valuable free tool.
It is important to understand the basics and fundementals of regular expressions. The key to mastering regular expression is to ensure that you thoroughly understand the syntax, the parsing mechanism and more importantly experimenting and trying out the various examples you find from books or from the Internet.
Even though it is not necessary for on-line and Internet marketeers to be technical savvy with regards to managing their website, nevertheless it helps a lot if you know something about PHP, HTML, XHTML, CSS and database programming. Of course if you have software programming background, it makes life much more that easier to learn Internet to master Internet programming tools and scripting languages.
All is not lost for those who do not have background in software programming though. Pick up basic HTML and Internet programming books from the library or go and checkout free resources on-line on basics Internet programming and read it up. It takes time and perseverance and determination to pick up new skills and trades.
My goal for the next two months is to master the following namely:
1) Understand the basics of regular expression, in particular Perl Regular Expression
2) SQLLite database programming.
A sizable of Internet programming centers around HTML search strings. If you are familiar with Perl regular expression knowledge, chances are that there are many things you could to with regards to parsing the necessary response strings from the Server. For instance, developing your own YouTube API search scripts and etc.
