my $pat = ''; for ($ARGV[0]) { /\G ([A-EG-WYZ]+) /xgc && do { $pat .= $1; redo }; /\G X /xgc && do { $pat .= '.'; redo }; /\G F /xgc && do { $pat .= '[QRG]'; redo }; /\G \[ ([A-Z]) \/ ([A-Z]) \] /xgc && do { $pat .= "[$1$2]"; redo }; /\G \z /xgc && last; my $pos = pos(); my $next = substr($_, $pos, 1); die("Unrecognized character \"$next\" at pos $pos\n"); }