Ok here is a very rough and ugly start to how I think your suggesting I should go about compiling aXML files. I know this code is _AWFUL_, but it does work and it's quite fast at turning an aXML file into a bunch of print statements and axml function calls which could be very quickly parsed by my existing parser system as they are very short. I guess I would want to save the output of this program on first run so I can skip this step on subsequent runs. This only supports <> type tags.

use Modern::Perl;

use Time::HiRes qw( gettimeofday tv_interval );

my $start = [ gettimeofday ];


my $aXML_ENV = {   qd => {   a => 'b', 
                             b => 'c',
                             c => '42' },
                 conf => {   x => 'y',
                           foo => '1',
                           bar => '2' }
               };


my $plugins = { qd => '$result = $aXML_ENV->{"qd"}->{$data}',
                conf => '$result = $aXML_ENV->{"conf"}->{$data}' };





my $aXML_string = qq@
some other data that needs to be output as well
<qd><qd><qd>a</qd></qd></qd> = 42

<conf>bar</conf>

<sometag>thatdoesnothing</sometag> but also needs
to be present in the output

<conf>foo</conf>

<someothertag>thatalsodoesnothing</someothertag>
as far as aXML is concerned, but obviously used by
whatever program we are sending this data too.
@;






sub sortofcompileit
  {
   my $aXML_ENV = $_[0];
   my $plugins = $_[1];
   my $aXML_string = $_[2];
   my $compiled_string_start;
   my $compiled_string_end;
   my $compiled_string_middle;
   my @commands;   
   my $command_opens_string = "(";
   my $command_closes_string = "(";
   my $mong_string;


   while ( my ($key, $value) = each(%$plugins) ) { push (@commands, $k
+ey); }   

   map { $command_opens_string .= "<$_>|" } @commands; 
   map { $command_closes_string .= "</$_>|" } @commands; 

   chop $command_opens_string;
   chop $command_closes_string;

   $command_opens_string .= ")";
   $command_closes_string .= ")";

   #find the position of the first command 
   #set everything before it to be printed

   if ($aXML_string =~ m@^(.*?)$command_opens_string@s)
     {
      $compiled_string_start = 'print qq@';
      $compiled_string_start .= $1;
      $compiled_string_start .= "@;\n\n";
     }

   $mong_string = 'use aXML;';
   $mong_string .= "\n";
   $mong_string .= $compiled_string_start;


   #find everything in the middle 

   if ($aXML_string =~ m@$command_opens_string(.*)$command_closes_stri
+ng@s)
     {
      $compiled_string_middle = "<axml>$1$2$3</axml>";
     }
   
   #find anything in the middle which is inbetween any type of close
   #and open and set it to be printed out

   my $replacement;

   $compiled_string_middle =~ s@$command_closes_string@`$1@gs;


   while ($compiled_string_middle =~ m@(.*?)$command_closes_string([^`
+]*?)$command_opens_string@gs)
        {
  
         $replacement = "$1$2</axml>\n\n";
         $replacement .= 'print qq@';
         $replacement .= $3;
         $replacement .= "@;\n\n<axml>$4";

         $mong_string .= $replacement;

        } 

    $compiled_string_middle =~ s@`@@gs;

   if ($compiled_string_middle =~ m@.*$command_opens_string(.*?)$comma
+nd_closes_string</axml>$@s) 
     {
      $mong_string .= "$2$3</axml>\n\n";
     }

     
   #find the position of the last close tag 
   #set everything after it to be printed

   if ($aXML_string =~ m@.*$command_closes_string(.*)$@s)
     {
      $compiled_string_end = 'print qq@';
      $compiled_string_end .= $2;
      $compiled_string_end .= '@;';
     }

   $mong_string .= $compiled_string_end;
   $mong_string =~ s@`@@gs;

   $mong_string =~ s/<axml>(.*?)<\/axml>/print axml\(qq\@$1\@\);/g;

   return $mong_string;
  }



my $sortofcompiled_string = sortofcompileit($aXML_ENV,$plugins,$aXML_s
+tring);

say $sortofcompiled_string;

my $end = [ gettimeofday ];
my $total_elapsed = tv_interval($start,$end);

say "elapsed = $total_elapsed";
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