sub escapeHTML {
    local $_ = shift;
    # make the required escapes
    s/&/&amp/g;
    s/"/"/g;
    s/</&lt;/g;
    s/>/&gt;/g;
    # change tabs to 4 spaces
    s/\t/    /g;
    # make the whitespace escapes - not required within <pre> tags  
    s/( {2,})/"&nbsp;" x length $1/eg;
    # make the brower bugfix escapes;
    s/\x8b/&#139;/g;
    s/\x9b/&#155;/g;
    # change newlines to <br> if desired - not required with <pre>
    s/\n/<br>\n/g;
  return $_;
}