use CGI qw/:standard/;
$text =~ s#\[(id=[^]]*)]([^[]*)\[/id]#a({href => $targetURL . $1}, $2)
+#eg;
[download]

That handles the $1 correct, but not $2. Still need HTML::Entities::encode_entities on $2.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker