Multiline regex

[Giles Chamberlin]

I'm having trouble with a multi line regex: can any one show me where
I'm going wrong?

I have a data file of the form:

a
1
b

a
2
b

and wish to replace the "paragraphs" a..b.  Using re-builder (and based
on http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MultilineRegexp) I have constructed a
successfully matching regex:

"a\\(.*
?\\)*?*b"

but when I try to use that regex in replace-regex I get 0 matches.  Any
suggestions?




-- 
Giles