Anybody Have A Reason Why I Should NOT Purchase RegExBuddy This Week?

[tinjaw]

I have been poking around for weeks, on and off, looking for a good RegEx tool. There are some good free ones, but most of them work only with one or two languages (in this order) C(++), .NET, Perl, or Java. I, as many know, prefer Python. But I must be able to learn them for all languages, or have a way to easily translate between them. Well, this page on the RegExBuddy website has pretty much convinced me to go with RegExBuddy.

On top of that, the fact that the developer runs Regular-Expressions.info just makes me want to support him and his product even more.

What I would like to know are two things:
1) Has anybody had any bad experiences with RegExBuddy or JGsoft?
2) Is there a tool that does more than RegExBuilder that I may have missed? Maybe because it is new and hasn't gotten as much exposure.

thanx,
tinjaw

[Carol Haynes]

I don't know the answer to the specific questions with RegExBuddy (I do have a copy but have never used it enough to really comment) but JGSoft is a great site. There are regular updates, mostly free (I use AceText and EditPad Pro) - and they have a money back guarantee.

[Darwin]

Caution: This post does not actually meet the criteria in tinjaw's post - no reasons NOT to purchase RegExBuddy here and no alternatives suggested...

I have both RegExBuddy and PowerGrep and love them   (still a total noob with regex, though...). I arrived at these two products via a circuitous route - I identified them early as being strong candidates to fill particular needs that I had (have) and then spent a LONG time (at least 18 months) trying to find free/cheaper alternatives. In the end, I just came back to them. I don't know of any products that are as fully featured and as easy to use. Others here, particularly Allen and Carol (though I know there are others), sing the praises of other jgsoft offerings (EditPad and AceText, for a start). I don't think you can go wrong. I purchased in late June/early July 2006 and am curious to find out what the upgrade policy is (I *think* it's a 50% discount, which probably places PowerGrep out of my reach for the time being). Anyway, support is excellent and all correspondence has been prompt, cheerful, and supportive (sorry, couldn't resist).

I don't think you can go wrong.

NOTE: Dang! Carol beat to it and raises a good point - that money back guarantee is honoured without question and without any drama. I initially purchased, got cold feet (and chills) over the price, and received a refund within about 2 hours (Thailand to Canada - impressive!), and then thought sod it, I'll buy them afterall, and did... No regrets.

[dme]

You are right: as far as I know, there is no other tool, which can produce regular expressions for different languages. (Until now I thought such a feature would be useless.)

Especially for Perl-compatible expressions there is a great tool at:

http://weitz.de/regex-coach

The Regex Coach is a graphical application for Windows which can be used to experiment with (Perl-compatible) regular expressions interactively. It has the following features:
It shows whether a regular expression matches a particular target string.
It can also show which parts of the target string correspond to captured register groups or to arbitrary parts of the regular expression.
It can "walk" through the target string one match at a time.
It can simulate Perl's split and s/// (substitution) operators.
It tries to describe the regular expression in plain English.
It can show a graphical representation of the regular expression's parse tree.
It can single-step through the matching process as performed by the regex engine.
Everything happens in "real time", i.e. as soon as you make a change somewhere in the application all other parts are instantly updated.

You also may have a look at my TextTransformer at:

http://www.texttransformer.com

There is a free regex test dialog for POSIX regular expressions integrated, which shows all sub-expressions and what was matched by them. In contrast to a Perl regex a POSIX regex always matches the longest possible string. Using this criterion, TextTransformer produces complete parsers and translators. E.g. you could make a parser for regular expressions of one language and translate it into expressions of another language.
If you or anybody else would make such a thing, and let me publish it on

http://www.texttransformer.org

I would spend him a free standard version of TextTransformer. But caution: this is not so easy.

Regards

Detlef

[mitzevo]

I brought AceText a few months back.. I'm quite happy with it.. doesn't say much about RegExBuddy.. but I do like JGSoft and their biz model about things... A solid software developer, so I don't think you could go wrong with at least testing it with the MBG..

[Renegade]

Jan is a really nice guy. He lives in Thailand with his wife and while I can't say "buy it", I believe that you're in good hands with his software. He cares about his customers and is responsive as well (I also have licenses for his software). I'd say that you've got a good investment with his stuff.

He's very smart and knows his stuff really well.

Speaking of which, I'm going to Thailand next month and should see if I can hook up with him for a beer!

[tinjaw]

I purchased RegExBuddy and I think I am going to be very happy with it.  At this point I can't even evaluate it since I don't know much RegEx, but I plan on using RegExBuddy to help me learn them. There is an awful lot to learn, not just of the application, but of RegEx as well.

[Renegade]

Once you learn regular expressions, you'll wonder how you lived without them before. They give you god-like powers with text.

[Carol Haynes]

I purchased RegExBuddy and I think I am going to be very happy with it.  At this point I can't even evaluate it since I don't know much RegEx, but I plan on using RegExBuddy to help me learn them. There is an awful lot to learn, not just of the application, but of RegEx as well.

I haven't got a list handy at the moment but there are loads of useful sites with RegEx tutorials. I'd guess if you searched this forumm you would find a few of them.

[tinjaw]

I haven't got a list handy at the moment but there are loads of useful sites with RegEx tutorials. I'd guess if you searched this forumm you would find a few of them.

Most likely I will start with the very excellent site run by Jan Goyvaerts, the developer of RegexBuddy, called Regular-Expressions.info.

[allen]

Regex is something I'm passionate about--actually, my love for it is what drove me to learn php.  Wanted to do more, dynamically, with regex.  I also am a huge fan of JGSoft, owning licenses to all of Jan's apps save for the help compiler.

I've played with regex coach a bit as well as (obviously) regexbuddy -- both of which are good tools for learning/debugging regex.  Regexbuddy has some great features the coach didn't though, at least when I tried it -- the ability to save/reuse expressions, basic grep functionality, syntax hilighting.  It's also cool how it can communicate/exchange data with other JGSoft apps if you have them.  Launch it from editpad or powergrep to create/modify an expression then send it back to the parent app.

That said, I have to admit to having not used regexbuddy all that much, personally -- Mostly I used it as a sandbox for saving often-used expressions prior to EditPad Pro being able to do that itself -- and then later getting powergrep.

It's a great regex tool, don't get me wrong.  I just find EditPad pro sufficient to make it obsolete -- find/replace dialog itself has syntax highlighting and the ability to highlight matches in real time -- so I can create and test expressions comfortably without having to launch an additional application.

Rambling aside--regex is great. JGSoft is great.  You can't go wrong with either one, and together... yeah, still great.

[gjehle]

well, it looks like a decent piece of software.
yet i think i wouldn't buy it (i've had enough chomsky in my CS studies to do that stuff blindfolded)
and besides that, KDE already comes with a regex editor (which kinda sucks (or maybe it was just my inability to use it)

[Dirhael]

I bought it (RegExBuddy) a few years ago, and today I don't really know what I'd do without it. I've tried several of the alternatives, but none of them came close to matching its features. The best one by far (though the GREP functions is a close second) is found on the "use" tab, where you can get your expression "converted" to a whole bunch of languages. This is great, as not everything uses a Perl-compatible syntax (which I am most comfortable with). Well worth the price in my opinion

The only minor issue (and it really is minor) I have with it and all other JGSoft products is the interface. It gets the job done, but I don't like how they insist on using custom styling on tabs etc., instead of using the standard Windows widgets.

[springro]

Late add, but this is also a potential option: 

The Regulator is an advanced Regular expressions testing tool, featuring syntax highlighting and web-service integration with Regexlib.com's database of online regular expressions. See more info at http://regulator.sourceforge.net

[Darwin]

The only minor issue (and it really is minor) I have with it and all other JGSoft products is the interface. It gets the job done, but I don't like how they insist on using custom styling on tabs etc., instead of using the standard Windows widgets.

Funny how different people react to things: I LOVE the interface in the three products that I use from jgsoft (RegEx Buddy, PowerGrep, and EditPad Pro). To each his or her own...

[Carol Haynes]

My pet hate with JGSoft is that none of their apps have "Exit" in the correct place on the tray menus. That seems like being perverse for the sake of it.

[zridling]

[attach regular_expressions.png]

[Darwin]

Nice one Zaine! Carol - I don't use the tray icons so hadn't noticed... It's going to bug me now  Funny, this is related to what irritates me about Super Flexible File Synchronizer - the menus in a completely different order than any other windows app that I've ever used: Areas, Help, Wizard, Exit Now. Takes some getting used to!