So if you had only seen an airplane in the sky above, or from the passenger cabin, you would attempt to fly one, but only if it were small?

Better perhaps, to go to flight school...

Or, in this case, to the Tutorials section here, after which you may have a better idea of which of the XML::* family will make your task easy.

And, if, and only if the notion that a little flight school would help, you may seek wisdom on regexen, at

• perldoc perlretut
• perldoc perlre
• ... and family
• ...and (again) the tutorials here.

some of which may help you understand why using regexen is -- as you already know -- "not recommended" and why using a proper tool might let you avoid becoming a "smoking hole."

Update: <>strike> to fix wording