=== modified file 'data.awk'
--- data.awk	2013-09-16 16:47:56 +0000
+++ data.awk	2013-09-11 23:26:09 +0000
@@ -6,8 +6,7 @@
 	# 0 read normal variables
 	# 1 seen start of field list, read titles
 	# 2 reading list values
-	# ident_re = /[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*/
-	ident_re = "[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*"
+	ident_re = /[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*/
 }
 
 $0 == "]" && state == 2 {
@@ -24,81 +23,32 @@
 state == 1 {
 	V[varname,"fields"] = $0
 	list_n = 1
-	state = 2
 	next
 }
 
-/^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*=\[$/ {
+/[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*=\[$/ {
 	# start of field list
 	state = 1
-	m = match($0, ident_re)
+	m = match(ident_re)
 	varname = substr($0, m, RLENGTH)
 	next
 }
 
-/^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*=/ {
-	m = match($0, ident_re)
+/[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*=/ {
+	m = match(ident_re)
 	varname = substr($0, m, RLENGTH)
 	V[varname] = substr($0, m+1+RLENGTH)
-	printf "got scalar: %s ⇒ %s (%d)\n", varname, V[varname], m
 	next
 }
 
-/^\t/ {
+/\t/ {
 	V[varname] = V[varname] "\n" substr($0, 1)
-	next
-}
-
-{
-	# TODO posix compliance
-	print "unparseable line: " $0 >"/dev/stderr"
-	exit 1
-}
-
-function loop_start(varname, prefix,    depth) {
-	depth = ++loop_stack["depth"]
-	loop_stack[depth,"row"] = 0
-	loop_stack[depth,"var"] = varname
-	loop_stack[depth,"pre"] = prefix
-	return depth
-}
-
-function loop_iter(depth) {
-	loop_stack[depth,"row"]++
-	return (loop_stack[depth,"var"], loop_stack[depth,"row"]) in V
-}
-
-function loop_end() {
-	delete loop_stack[loop_stack["depth"], "row"]
-	delete loop_stack[loop_stack["depth"], "var"]
-	delete loop_stack[loop_stack["depth"], "pre"]
-	loop_stack["depth"]--
-}
-
-function get(varname,   i, n, names, values) {
-	for(i=loop_stack["depth"]; i>0; i--) {
-		split(V[loop_stack[i, "var"], "fields"], names)
-		for(n in names) {
-			if(varname == (loop_stack[i, "pre"] names[n])) {
-				split(V[loop_stack[i, "var"], loop_stack[i, "row"]], values)
-				return values[n]
-			}
-		}
-	}
-	return V[varname]
-}
-
-# just testing it out
+}
+
+# TODO error
+
 END {
 	for(key in V) {
-		printf("%s⇒\t→%s←\n", key, V[key])
+		printf("s\ts\n", key, V[key])
 	}
-	print "--------------------"
-	print get("foo")
-	for(d1=loop_start("spam"); loop_iter(d1);) {
-		print get("name") "-" get("value")
-		for(d2=loop_start("spam", "i_"); loop_iter(d2);) {
-			print get("eggs") + get("i_eggs")
-		}
-	} loop_end()
 }