Another way is to split on space, then printf. Take care to preserve spaces in the character field.

my @line = split " ", $_, 10;
printf "\t\"x%s x%s x%s x%s x%s x%s x%s x%s\",\t\t/* %s %s */\n",
        @line[1..8], $line[0], $line[9];
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IMO this is clearer and probably faster than re techniques, sexy as they are.

After Compline,
Zaxo