While Apocolypse 5 raises some good points about problems with the old regex syntax, its new syntax is actually worse than in perl 5. Most regexes, such as this one to match a C float
/^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/ would actually become longer: /^(<[+-]>?)<before \d|\.\d>\d*(\.\d*)?(<[Ee]>(<[+-]>?\d+))?$/ Therefore I propose a few minor changes: character class: [...] non-captured group: {...} closure: <{...}> lookahead assertion: <b ...> lookbehind assertion: <a ...> This would bring the aforementioned regex back down to perl 5 size, and many would become even shorter than in perl 5. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.yahoo.com