# parses text like:
# name = japhy  age = "22"  lang = 'Perl'
# into a hash... but doesn't capture the quotes!
my %data = $text =~ m{
  ([^=\s]+) \s* = \s* 
  (?:
    (?3= ['"] ) (.*? ) \3 |
    ( \S+ )
  )
}xg;

##</code><code>##

while ( <DATA> ) {
  my %data = $_ =~ m{
    ([^=\s]+) \s* = \s* 
    ["']?(
      (?<=')[^']* |
      (?<=")[^"]* |
      \S+
    )["']?
  }xg;