sub escapeHTML {
    my ( $escape, $text ) = @_;
  return '' unless defined $escape ;
    $escape =~ s/&/&/g;
    $escape =~ s/"/"/g;
    $escape =~ s/</&lt;/g;
    $escape =~ s/>/&gt;/g;
    # these next optional escapes make text look the same when rendered in HTML
    # without wrapping in <pre> tags
    if ( $text ) {
        $escape =~ s/\t/    /g;                         # tabs to 4 spaces
        $escape =~ s/( {2,})/"&nbsp;" x length $1/eg;   # whitespace escapes
        $escape =~  s/\n/<br>\n/g;                      # newlines to <br>
    }
    $escape =~ s/([^\000-\177])/'&#' . (sprintf "%3d", ord $1) . ';'/eg;
  return $escape;
}