LINE:
    while (my $line = <$INFILE> ) {
        chomp
        next LINE if $line =~ m<\A\s*{>;
        #
        # or if it was going to be literally 
        # the first char, with no spaces ... 
        #
        next LINE if q<{> eq substr $line, 0, 1;
        #
        # other processing
        #
        $text .= $line . $NEWLINE;
    }

##</code><code>##

next LINE if length $line == 1 and q{\} eq substr $line, 0, 1;

##</code><code>##

s/(?<=\n)\s+//;
#or, line by line:
s/\A\s+//

##</code><code>##

s/\s+\n//;

##</code><code>##

Readonly my $ESC_BACKSLASH => q{\\};
Readonly my $NEWLINE => q{\n};
$wholefile =~ s/$ESC_BACKSLASH\z//o;

##</code><code>##

Readonly my $RTF_CMD => qr/$ESC_BACKSLASH [\w-]+/xo;
s/$RTF_CMD//;