Thanks to kind advice given by various nice folks around here I've been working on a different approach. This seems pretty fast, but is it fast enough me wonders. This version only deals with standard < > tags.

#!/usr/bin/perl;

use Modern::Perl;
use Time::HiRes qw( gettimeofday tv_interval );

my $qd;
$qd->{'a'} = 'b';
$qd->{'b'} = 'c';
$qd->{'c'} = 21;
$qd->{'action'} = "default";
$qd->{'lang'} = "en";

my $knowncmds = "(qd|double|use)";


say aXML_eval(qq@<html lang="<qd a="b">lang</qd>">
<head>
  <title><qd a="b" b="c">action</qd></title>
</head>
<body>
orphan data 1
<double><qd><qd><qd>a</qd></qd></qd></double>
<use>actions/<qd>action</qd>/body.aXML</use>
orphan data 2
</body></html>@
);






sub aXML_qd { $qd->{$_[1]}; }

sub aXML_double { $_[1]*2; }

sub aXML_use { "opened file :: $_[1]"; }


sub aXML_eval
 {
  my $aXML = shift;

  $aXML =~ s@</@{endtag}@gs;
  $aXML =~ s@/@{bs}@gs;
  $aXML =~ s@{endtag}@</@gs;
  $aXML =~ s@:@{colon}@gs;
  $aXML =~ s@;@{semicolon}@gs;

  my @chars = split //, $aXML;
  my $level = 0;  
  my $dropping_level;
  my $dropping = 0;
  my $dropnext = 0;
  my @finalletters; 

  foreach my $char (@chars)
    {
     if ($dropnext) { $dropping = 1; $dropnext = 0; }
     if ($char eq "<") { $level++; }
     if ($char eq ">") { $level--; }
     if ($char eq "/") 
       {
        unless($dropping)
         {
          $dropping_level = $level; 
          $dropnext = 1;
         }
       }

     if ($dropping) { if ($level < $dropping_level) { $dropping = 0; }
+ }

     push (@finalletters,$char) unless $dropping;
    }

  $aXML = join('',@finalletters);

  while ($aXML =~ m@<([^<>]+?)>(.*?)</>@gs)
    {
     my $original_tag = $1;
     my $original_data = $2;
     my $original_string = "<$1>$2</>";
     my $replace_string;

     if ($original_tag =~ m@([^\s]+?)\s(.*)@gs)
       {
        my $tag_name = $1;
        my $tag_attr = $2;


        $tag_attr =~ s@(.*?)="(.*?)"@ $1 =` '$2',@gs;
        chop($tag_attr);

        $replace_string = ";$tag_name:{$tag_attr },'$original_data':;"
+;
       }
     else
       {
        $replace_string = ";$original_tag:{},'$original_data':;";
       }
     
     $aXML =~ s@$original_string@$replace_string@gs;     
    }
 
   $aXML =~ s@:;@\)\]@gs;
   $aXML =~ s@;([^:;]+?):@\[$1\(@gs;
   $aXML =~ s@`@>@gs;
   $aXML =~ s@{bs}@/@gs;
   $aXML =~ s@{colon}@:@gs;
   $aXML =~ s@{semicolon}@;@gs;

   say "save this to disc...\n";
   say "$aXML\n\n\n";

   say "then process to get this...\n\n";

   my $start = [ gettimeofday ];

   while ($aXML =~ m@\[([^\[\]]*?)\]@gs)
      {
       my $tag = $1;
       
       my $original_string = "\[$1\]";
       my $replace_string = "";

       if ($tag =~ m@(.*)\(\{(.*?)\},'(.*)'\)@gs)
         {
          my $cmd = $1;
          my $args = $2;
          my $data = $3;

          if ($cmd =~ m@$knowncmds@s)
            {
             eval("\$replace_string = aXML_$tag;");
            }
          else
            {
             my $new_args;

             if ($args =~ m@\S@g)
               {
                my $arg_string = "\$temp_arg_hash = \{ $args \}";
                my $temp_arg_hash;

                eval ($arg_string);

                while (my ($key,$val) = each(%$temp_arg_hash) )
                   {
                    $new_args .= " $key=\"$val\"";
                   }
 
                $args = $new_args;
               }

             $replace_string = "<$cmd$args>$data</$cmd>";
            }         
         }       
 
       $original_string =~ s@\(@\\\(@gs;  
       $original_string =~ s@\)@\\\)@gs;  
       $original_string =~ s@\[@\\\[@gs;  
       $original_string =~ s@\]@\\\]@gs;  
       $original_string =~ s@\{@\\\{@gs;  
       $original_string =~ s@\}@\\\}@gs;  

       $aXML =~ s@$original_string@$replace_string@gs;
      }

   my $end = [ gettimeofday ];
   my $total_elapsed = tv_interval($start,$end);
   $aXML .= "\n\nprocessing took : $total_elapsed seconds";

   return $aXML;   
  }

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In reply to Fast enough yet? by Logicus

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