my ($fragment) = $full_text =~ /^(.{1,200}[^\s]*)/s;

##</code><code>##

my @chars = split //, $full_text;
my @excerpt;
my $in_tag = 0;
my $limit=200;


# Get exactly $limit characters of text
while ( my $char = shift @chars ) {
	push @excerpt, $char;
	$in_tag++ if $char eq '<';
	$in_tag-- if $char eq '>';
	$count++ unless $in_tag;
	last if $count > $limit and !$in_tag;
}

#Now make sure we get the last word until boundary
$in_tag = 0; # just in case
while ( my $char = shift @chars ){
	$in_tag++ if $char eq '<';
	$in_tag-- if $char eq '>';
	last if $char =~/\s/ and !$in_tag;
	push @excerpt, $char;
}

my $excerpt = join ('', @excerpt);

##</code><code>##

__DATA__
A story on GettingIt about <a href="http://ss.gettingit.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?GXHC_gx_session_id_FutureTenseContentServer=7f12a816fa48a5b9&pagename=FutureTense/Demos/GI/Templates/Article_View&parm1=A1545-1999Oct12&topframe=true">hacking polls</a>. Contrary to what the article says, Time is <b>not</b> checking for multiple votes on
 <a href="javascript:document.timedigital.submit();">their 
poll</a>. And I'm happy to report that despite the fact that
 my cheater scripts aren't running, I'm still beating Bill Gates.