Hi Frank,

I have a slightly shorter program from this:

   $ txr -B -c '@(gather)
   @{A /a/}
   @{B /b/}
   @(and)
   @(line l1)
   @X
   @(line l2)
   @Y
   @(line l3)
   @(end)'
   a
   b
   [Ctrl-D][Enter]
   false

If we supply the input

   a
   x
   b

where x is any content whatsoever, then it works. The reason is this 
[Doc quote]:

        How  gather works is that the text is searched for matches for 
the sin‐
        gle line and multi-line queries. The clauses are applied in  the  
order
        in  which  they appear.  Whenever one of the clauses matches, any 
bind‐
        ings it produces are retained and it is removed from further 
considera‐
        tion.  Multiple clauses can match at the same text position.  The 
posi‐
        tion advances by  the  longest  match  from  among  the  clauses  
which
        matched.   If no clauses match, the position advances by one 
line.  The
        search stops when all clauses are eliminated, and then  the  
cumulative
        bindings  are  produced.   If  the data runs out, but unmatched 
clauses
        remain, the directive fails.

The key requirement above is "The position advances by the longest match 
from
among the clauses which matched".

When the lines ("a" "b") match the multi-line block, both lines are 
consumed.
At that time, there is no match for the b variable. In the subsequent 
iteration,
the @{b /b/} doesn't have an opportunity to match the "b" line because 
it has
been consumed by the block match. So @(gather) is still missing the "b" 
match
and looking for it in any subsequent material.

This is where the @(trailer) directive comes in handy:

   $ txr -B -c '@(gather)
   @{A /a/}
   @{B /b/}
   @(and)
   @(line l1)
   @X
   @X
   @(line l2)
   @Y
   @(line l3)
   @(end)'
   a
   b
   [Ctrl-D][Enter]
   A="a"
   l1="1"
   X="a"
   l2="2"
   Y="b"
   l3="3"
   B="b"

Now we have a two-line match, which advances only by one line.

@(trailer) and its name were inspired by trailing contexts in Lex.
(And they are used in TXR's parse.l source file).

Cheers ...