if(length $c[-1]) {
    # Now actually processing the preceding literal
    $big_pile .= $c[-1];
    if($USE_LITERALS and (
      (ord('A') == 65)
      ? $c[-1] !~ m<[^\x20-\x7E]>s
      # ASCII very safe chars
      : $c[-1] !~ m/[^ !"\#\$%&'()*+,\-.\/0-9:;<=>?\@A-Z[\\\]^_`a-z{|}~\x07]/s
      # EBCDIC very safe chars
    )) {
      # normal case -- all very safe chars
      $c[-1] =~ s/'/\\'/g;
      push @code, q{ '} . $c[-1] . "',\n";
      $c[-1] = ''; # reuse this slot
    } else {
      push @code, ' $c[' . $#c . "],\n";
      push @c, ''; # new chunk
    }