Yay you got Heredocs! now just do this:

print FILE <<'MOF';
# code
MOF

print FILE qq[\$basedir = "/$basedir";\n];

print FILE <<'EOF';
# rest of code
EOF
[download]

If you don't like qq you could do the IMHO uglier: print FILE "\$basedir = \"/$basedir\";\n";

HTH! =)

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)