INPUT - Text Character Counter Non-filtering - Roll Your Own
by bizamajig
HTML
<textarea id="myInput"></textarea>
Counter: <span id="charCount"></span>
JavaScript
var $input = $('#myInput'),
$output = $('#charCount'),
re_strip = /\{.*?\}/g;
$input.keyup(function ()
{
var val = $(this).val();
val = val.replace(re_strip, '');
$output.text(val.length);
});