# 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;