Based on the reactions, I'm removing my personal anecdotes and conjecture from the post, and sticking with my original question.

Here is the code that I have working. 

#!/usr/bin/perl
$_='{\selectlanguage{english}
\textcolor{black}{\ \ 10.\ \ Three resistors connected in series each
carry currents labeled }\textit{\textcolor{black}{I}}\textcolor{black}
+{\textsubscript{1}}\textcolor{black}{,
}\textit{\textcolor{black}{I}}\textcolor{black}{\textsubscript{2}}\tex
+tcolor{black}{and}\textit{\textcolor{black}{I}}\textcolor{black}{\tex
+tsubscript{3}}\textcolor{black}{.
Which of the following expresses the value of the total current
}\textit{\textcolor{black}{I}}\textit{\textcolor{black}{\textsubscript
+{T}}}\textcolor{black}{in the system made up of the three resistors i
+n series?}}.';;
$nobrackets  = qr/[^\{}]+/;  
my $pass = 0;
while(++$pass <=2){
s/\\textsuperscript\{($nobrackets)\}/ startsuperscript $1 endsuperscri
+pt /g;
s/\\textsubscript\{($nobrackets)\}/ startsubscript $1 endsubscript/g;
s/\\textit\{($nobrackets)\}/ startitalic $1 enditalic/g;  
s/\\textcolor\{$nobrackets\}//g;
s/\{($nobrackets)\}/($1)/g;
 print "Pass $pass:\n\n". qq{$_}."\n\n\n";
}

[download]
This produces output as follows: 
Pass 1:

{\selectlanguage(english)
(\ \ 10.\ \ Three resistors connected in series each
carry currents labeled )\textit{(I)}( startsubscript 1 endsubscript)(,
)\textit{(I)}( startsubscript 2 endsubscript)(and)\textit{(I)}( starts
+ubscript 3
 endsubscript)(.
Which of the following expresses the value of the total current
)\textit{(I)}\textit{( startsubscript T endsubscript)}(in the system m
+ade up of
the three resistors in series?)}.


Pass 2:

(\selectlanguage(english)
(\ \ 10.\ \ Three resistors connected in series each
carry currents labeled ) startitalic (I) enditalic( startsubscript 1 e
+ndsubscrip
t)(,
) startitalic (I) enditalic( startsubscript 2 endsubscript)(and) start
+italic (I)
 enditalic( startsubscript 3 endsubscript)(.
Which of the following expresses the value of the total current
) startitalic (I) enditalic startitalic ( startsubscript T endsubscrip
+t) endital
ic(in the system made up of the three resistors in series?)).

[download]
Notice on pass 1, it removes the inner curly-brackets, and on pass 2, it removes the outer curly-brackets, additional passes could remove more curly-brackets if necessary. What I want(ed) to change was to turn these s///g or s///eeg statements into subroutines, keeping the capture and replacement variables separate. The code works fine as is, but I'm still curious as to whether the variables could be passed to a subroutine.

In reply to Re^4: Regex - Is there any way to control when the contents of a variable are interpolated? (Using "$1" and '$1' in regex replacements) by JDoolin
in thread Regex - Is there any way to control when the contents of a variable are interpolated? (Using "$1" and '$1' in regex replacements) by JDoolin

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