print "$_\n" for chunk('Now replace(foo\(bar\)) "String \"escaped\" like so"  more');

# chop a function up into RE and non RE bits so we can chunkify 
# it into strings and non string sections
sub chunk {
    my $func = shift;
    my @lotsa_chunks;
    my @array = split /(?=\breplace\s*\()/, $func;
    for my $bit (@array) {
        if ($bit =~ /^replace/) {
            # do careful quote parse on RE chunk
            my $last = '';
            my $re = '';
            for (split //, $bit) {
                unless ( $_ eq ')' and $last ne "\\" ) {
                    $re .= $_;
                    $last = $_;
                  next;
                }
                $re .= $_;                        # add closing bracket
                push @lotsa_chunks, $re;          # push complete RE into a chunk
                $bit =~ s/\Q$re\E//;              # hack RE off
                push @lotsa_chunks, strings($bit);  # chunk the remainder
            }
        } else {
            push @lotsa_chunks, strings($bit);
        }
    }
  return @lotsa_chunks
}


# this sub splits a function into quoted and unquoted chunks
sub strings {
    my $func = shift;
    my @chunks;
    my $chunk = 0;
    my $found_quote = '';
    my $last = '';
    for (split //, $func) {
        # look for RE
        # look for opening quote
        if (/'|"/ and ! $found_quote and $last ne "\\" ) {
            $found_quote = $_;
            $chunk++;
            $chunks[$chunk] = $_;
          next;
        }
        # look for coresponding closing quote
        if ( $found_quote and /$found_quote/ and $last ne "\\" ) {
            $found_quote = '';
            $chunks[$chunk] .= $_;
            $chunk++;
          next;
        }
        # no quotes so just add to current chunk
        $chunks[$chunk] .= $_;
    } continue { $last = $_; }
    # strip whitespace from unquoted chunks;
    for (@chunks) {
      next if m/^(?:"|')/;      # leave quoted strings alone
        s/^[ \t]+|[ \t]+$//g;
        s/^\s*$//;
    }
  return @chunks;
}