Installation Instructions: Nothing unusual - simply run the enclosed executable.
Operation Instructions: The application allows the user to type up some source text (or load a text file), type in a regular expression, and then click "Match" to find matches of the regular expression in the source text. If any groups are included in the regular expression, a list of them for the current match is displayed in the "Captured Groups" textbox. It's pretty self-explanatory. If you don't understand any of this, then you should probably do some research on regular expressions.
The "Single-Line Mode" checkbox determines whether line breaks (\r and \b) are taken into account or simply ignored. In "classic" regular expressions, the character symbol (.) will not match a line-break character, and careful attention to line breaks must be paid by using the beginning-of-line symbol (^) and the end-of-line symbol ($). In most cases, especially where scraping text out of HTML, line breaks should be ignored. Thus, by default, the regular expressions do not run in "single-line mode."
If multiple matches are found, the total number is displayed. You may page through them by clicking the Left and Right arrows. The text for each match is selected in the Source Text box, and the groups captured for each match are displayed in the "Captured Groups" textbox.
Finally, a regular expression symbol reference is included (I can never remember the more exotic symbols!) - just click the button at the bottom of the window.
Application History: This is a very quick-and-dirty application, knocked together while developing an HTML-scraping XML web service. Not intended to be a full-fledged development tool, just a little widget.
Version 1.0: Initial release.
Version 1.1: Bugfix release.
Questions/Comments: Please contact David J. Stein, Esq. via email at djs10@po.cwru.edu.
Terms and Conditions of Use: Please see the enclosed "License.html" file for terms and conditions of use of this software package.