Late last year I resolved to start writing more. Setting up this blog and two others was a big part of that. Though my blogs have been a little quiet lately, I’ve actually been doing a lot of writing. But offline.

Whenever I set out to do something, opportunities that weren’t there before pop up everywhere. The opportunities aren’t new, but my attention to them is. I set out to do more writing, and suddenly I’m doing all the writing I can.

Two months ago I was asked if I wanted to co-author a book on regular expressions. I was hesitant at first. I’m very busy already, and writing books isn’t a very lucrative way to spend one’s time. But writing a real book sold in real bookstores has been something I’ve wanted to do since I was very young. I took the opportunity, before books go all digital. The book will be published by the same publisher as the best book on regular expressions to date. I’m confident the project is in good hands.

Unfortunately, writing a book, running a software business, and moving 800 km South, does not leave much time for blogging. This blog will likely remain quiet until the book is available for pre-order on Amazon.

It happened a little sooner than I expected. I just deleted the first comment that a request for help with creating a particular regular expression. I really don’t have the time for one-on-one tech support. Not even if you offer to pay me for it, or buy a copy of RegexBuddy. RegexBuddy does come with free technical support by email. But it only covers RegexBuddy itself. It doesn’t cover regular expressions in general. Just like Microsoft tech support won’t give you free counseling on your next C# project just because you bought a copy of Visual Studio.

I much prefer to spend my time writing this blog and web site. This way I can reach far more people than I could with one-on-one support. If there are any particular topics you’d like me to write about, please let me know. Feel free to leave a comment or use the feedback form.

The only place where I assist with individual regex problems is in the RegexBuddy user forum. At least when the other regex experts hanging out there don’t beat me to it. The forum is built into RegexBuddy itself. Just click on the Forum tab, and then on the Login button.

Hi and welcome to my new blog: Regex Guru.

My name is Jan Goyvaerts. It has been alleged that I know a thing or two about regular expressions. I am the author of www.regular-expressions.info and the developer of RegexBuddy and PowerGREP.

I have been blogging for some time, but never about regular expressions. This blog fixes that.

I will continue to expand the www.regular-expressions.info site. Tutorial and reference articles will get a temporary place on that site. News articles and information with an expiration date will go on the blog. The blog will also act as a “what’s new” feed for the regexp.info site. Talk about my own endeavors with regular expressions and updates on RegexBuddy and PowerGREP will also be confined to the blog (and their respective product web sites).

So who should subscribe to this blog? Anyone who wants to learn more about regular expressions! If you’re new to regexes, you should start with my regular expression tutorial. Articles in this blog will assume you’re familiar with all the concepts explained in the tutorial. After that, this blog will keep you up-to-date.

If you’re an expert on regexes, this blog will help you stay on top of your game. Regular expressions are everywhere these days. Though they have been around longer than I have been alive, they continue to evolve. In various inconsistent and confusing ways, I’m sad to say.