Reg. Expression doesn't want to stop: /\*((.)*\s)*((\*)/)*

Question

I'm designing a regular expression tester that takes the regular expression in one jtextpane and applies it to the text in another jtextpane.
The following code:
            Pattern pat = Pattern.compile(regExpPane.getText());
            Matcher m = pat.matcher(sdoc.getText(0, sdoc.getLength()));
            while (m.find() )
                doLater(m.start(), m.end()-m.start(), matched, true);
The doLater function is just a thread that applies setCharacterAttributes after the mutex on the styled document has been released.
The regular expression:
/\*((.)*\s)*((\*)/)*throws the while loop into an infinite loop ( I know this from limiting it to 10 cycles or less) when it finds text to match. The regular expression, as some of you may have already guessed, is for highlighting commented code between and including /* ... */
On smaller cases, such as one or two lines, it works fine. The problem arises on larger cases. Why would this run infintely? Perhaps someone has some suggestions for improvement?

Answer 1

Very poor solution...probably doesn't test everything...definitely doesn't test /* inside quotes.
But it might help
/* the first comment */
// standard imports
import java.util.regex.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.nio.*;
// import static java.lang.String.format;
// import static java.lang.System.out;
// local imports
public class RegexExample
    private static Pattern SLASH_DOT_PATTERN;
    private static Pattern getSlashPattern()
        if (SLASH_DOT_PATTERN == null)
            String regex = "(?:[^/]|^)  /\\*  (?:[^*]  | \\*[^/])*   \\*/";
            //                     1      2            3               4
            // 1 Either starts at the beginning of the file or not a //* kind of
            // comment.
            // 2 Start of a slash-star comment
            // 3 The stuff inside the slash-dot comment cannot be a star-slash
            // 4 End of a slash-star comment.
            SLASH_DOT_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(regex,
                                                Pattern.DOTALL | Pattern.COMMENTS);
        return SLASH_DOT_PATTERN;
    public static void main(String [] args)
        testCommentInFiles(args);
    private static void testCommentInFiles(String [] filenames)
        Matcher m = getSlashPattern().matcher("");
        for (int i = 0, maxi = filenames.length; i < maxi; i++)
            System.out.println("\n\n----------------\nTesting file: " +
                    filenames);
boolean noMatchWasFound = testFile(filenames[i], m);
if (noMatchWasFound)
System.out.println("No slash star found in this file");
else
System.out.println("\nThat was file: " +
filenames[i]);
try
Thread.sleep(noMatchWasFound ? 1000 : 2000);
catch(InterruptedException ex)
* this is more
* commenting going on.
private static boolean testFile(String filename, Matcher m)
boolean noMatchWasFound = true;
try
File f = new File(filename);
long l = f.length();
int len = l > Integer.MAX_VALUE ? Integer.MAX_VALUE : (int)l;
char [] data = new char[len];
FileReader in = new FileReader(f);
in.read(data);
in.close();
CharSequence seq = CharBuffer.wrap(data);
m.reset(seq);
while (m.find())
noMatchWasFound = false;
System.out.println("\nFound match: " + m.start()
+ ":" + m.end());
System.out.println(m.group());
catch(Exception ex)
System.out.println(ex);
return noMatchWasFound;