val textblock : Parser[String] = rep1sep("[ \\S]+".r, "\n") ^^ (lst => lst.mkString(" ").replaceAll("\\W+"," "))
  val restrictions  = " *".r ~> ("an" | "n" | "a" ) ~ opt("..") ~ wholeNumber

  val lengthrestriction : Parser[Parser[Unit]] =
    (("an" | "n" | "a" | "id" ) ~ opt("..") ~ wholeNumber ^^ {
     case "an" ~ Some(_) ~ charlength => { s".{0,$charlength}".r }
     case "an" ~ None ~ charlength => { s".{$charlength}".r }
     case "n" ~ Some(_) ~ charlength => { s"\\d{0,$charlength}".r }
     case "n" ~ None ~ charlength => { s"\\d{$charlength}".r }
     case "a" ~ Some(_) ~ charlength => { s"[a-zA-Z +_:-]{0,$charlength}".r } //TODO extend for all legit chars
     case "a" ~ None ~ charlength => { s"[a-zA-Z +_:-]{$charlength}".r }

   }).map( _.map( s => Unit) )

  val changeIndicators : Parser[String] = "+" | "*" | "#" | "|" | "X"

  def block =
    blockheader ~ subblockparser(" *".r ~ "Desc: ") ~ subblockparser(" *".r ~ "Repr: ") ~ optionblock.* ^^ {
      case (id, name, batch) ~ description ~ repr ~ options => (id, name, batch, description, options)
    }

  def blockheader : Parser[(Int,String,String)] =
    opt(changeIndicators) ~ " *".r ~> "[0-9]*".r ~ "\\s*".r ~ "(\\S|(\\s\\S))*".r ~ "\\s*".r ~ ("[" ~> ".".r <~ "]" ) <~ "\n\n" ^^ {
      case id ~ _ ~ name ~ _ ~ batch => (id.toInt, name, batch )
    }

  def optionblock: Parser[(String,String,String)] =
    " *".r ~> "\\S*".r ~ "\\s*".r ~ "[^\n]*".r ~ "\n" ~ subblockparser(" *".r) ^^ {
      case option ~ _ ~ name ~ _ ~ description => (option, name, description)
    }

  def subblockparser(preamble: Parser[Any]) : Parser[String] =
    preamble ~> "[^\n]*".r ~ ( ("""\n*\z""".r | "\n\n") ^^^ "" | "\n" ~> subblockparser(" *".r) ) ^^ {
      case a ~ "" => a
      case a ~ b => a + " " + b
    }