[MacPerl] RegEx Redux

[Fred Fenimore <ffenimore@scholastic.com>]

Help!

I can't figure out why the following does not work.

	$str = "_MRK:ssdef .HEADLINE=_MRK:align center__MRK:face
plain__MRK:face bold__MRK:size 48__MRK:font Dutch801BT-Roman__";

	$body 		= "\s*([^_]+)";
	$faceMark 	= "_MRK:face$body\_";
	$sizeMark	= "_MRK:size$body\_";
	$fontMark 	= "_MRK:font$body\_";
	$ssdefMark	=
"(_MRK:ssdef\s*([^=]*)=($alignMark|$faceMark|$sizeMark|$fontMark){4,}\_)";

	if ($str =~ m/$ssdefMark/) {
		print "$1";
	}

It produces the following when run.
	_MRK:ssdef .HEADLINE=_

Obviously at this stage I am simply trying to find the entire ssdef marker
in the file.  I intend to break it up and replace with something else but I
can't even get the silly thing to match.  Its probably something simple but
I will be hanged if I can see what it is.

Fred

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