Unabasheded laziness and the phone edit

[Fairlight]

When asked his whereabouts on Fri, Aug 06, 2004 at 02:15:23AM -0400,
John Esak took the fifth, drank it, and then slurred:
> 
> PHONE  .\ <"("> N N N <")"> <" "> N N N <"-"> N N N N | N N N <"-"> N N N N

I'm not sure what you're period does there, John.  It throws the edit
syntax checker on 5.0.7D4 into a tailspin, so I removed it.  But try the
following (I'm breaking this into two lines at the OR pipe you have to
separate out the shorter portion of your original edit, for readability):

FLPHONE  \ [<"("> N N N <")"> ([!"-"!]<" ">)] N N N (<"-">[!" "!]) N N N N 
         | N N N <"-">[!" "!] N N N N

I've tested the following:

5025551212
502 555 1212
502-555-1212
502 555-1212
502-555 1212
5551212
555-1212
555 1212

All pass testing here, and give the desired results.

> Need I ask if there is a better way???  :-)  Go ahead, blow me away....

Well, this seems to work for me.  Hopefully it suits your needs.

> P.S. - Why is it that I can write some of the most fantastic processing
> tables known to man (and women)... but write the most clumsy, stupid (but at
> least they work) edits? :-(  I don't think in "edit-eeze".

Total time spent:  32min, including all testing.

I don't think particularly fast in editese either.  :)

mark->
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