Regular expressions are perhaps one of the most arcane techniques in computing. They are highly useful, highly powerful and highly unpleasant to deal with.
Regex Coach is app that aims to help with regexp development, test and debug,
What it does
App’s interface is split into three parts – two edit areas for expression and test string plus controls.
Interface doesn’t seem fancy, but it is very informational and makes good use of highlights to show what parts of test text are a match to expression.
Strong features
There are a lot of ways to break expression down and make sense of it here. Different tabs interpret it in different ways, from near-human text to schematic tree representation. Anyone is bound to find some acceptable explanation in here,
App also quite good at pointing out blatant mistakes, like missing closing brackets. Saves time, usually spent on figuring out typos.
Downsides
For a software title that has coach in title it doesn’t actually teach much. It brings tools to the table, but actual knowledge of regular expressions is something you have to find elsewhere.
Overall
Robust test app that can be major time saver, but is hardly good for regexp introduction.
Home&download http://www.weitz.de/regex-coach/