my $mouse = 'This is a story about mice, "I dint know mice were so smart."';
print trimTo($mouse,30), "\n";


##</code><code>##

sub chop_to_size {
    my ($text, $length) = @_;
    return $text if length $text < $length;
    # make room for ellipsis
    my $chop = $length - 3;
    $text =~ s/^\s*(.{$chop})\s*.+$/$1/;
    $text =~ s/[\s[:punct:]]+$//;
    $text .= "...";
    $text;
}