The (?{}) and (??{}) constructs are available for use in perl5.8, but you'd have to ask yourself if such ugliness is really worth it: 

$ perl -MData::Dumper -e 'q(abc de f abcdef) =~ m/(?<x>\w{3}).*\k<x>/ 
+and print Dumper {%+};'
$ perl5.8.8 -MData::Dumper -e 'q(abc de f abcdef) =~ m/(?{$+{x} = pos}
+)(\w{3})(?{$+{x} = substr($_, $+{x}, -$+{x}+pos)}).*(??{$+{x}})/ and 
+print Dumper {%+};'

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In reply to Re: Do a named regex group in 5.8? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Do a named regex group in 5.8? by crusty_collins

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