if ($this_portion_of_string_is_a_url) {
  $this_portion_of_string_is_a_url =
    qq(<a href="$this_portion_of_string_is_a_url">$this_portion_of_string_is_a_url</a>);
}

##</code><code>##

sub make_URL_href($){
    my( $url ) = @_;
    if( $url !~
        s{^(http:[-\w/#~:.+=&%@!]+)(\?.*)$}{<a href="$1$2">$1</a>}i ){
        $url = "<a href=\"$url\">$url</a>";
    }
    return $url;
}