Regular Expression Crossword Exercises

Useful in parts. Fine as a reference, less so as a cover-to-cover read.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Borrow it first if you can, or at least check the table of contents carefully before buying.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

Not quite what I expected from the description, but there is material here.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. Fine, but there are stronger books on the same subject if you look around.