But you didn't defeat regex, they didn't add it to the std until C++11. Don't look forward to that mastery until around 2084. And like the author says, you aren't a true C++ master until you write your own regex parser in order to write your own compiler. Or the other way around. It gets messy.

Also, I don't think you ever master regexes. When you think you know what you are doing you see a 5k character text parser in one giant regex and want to slam your head on a desk.