(defun perlish-fix-regexps (regexp)
  "Simple translation of a perlish REGEXP to an emacs one."
  (let ( (new-pattern regexp) )
    (setq new-pattern (replace-regexp-in-string "(" "\\\\(" new-pattern))
    (setq new-pattern (replace-regexp-in-string ")" "\\\\)" new-pattern))
    (setq new-pattern (replace-regexp-in-string "|" "\\\\|" new-pattern))
    (setq new-pattern (replace-regexp-in-string "\\\\\"" "\"" new-pattern))
    new-pattern))

(perlish-fix-regexps "(.*?)")
(perlish-fix-regexps "(ha|ho)")
(perlish-fix-regexps "\"[ \t]*(.*?)[ \t]*\"")

(defun perlish-match (string pattern)
  "Apply the perlish PATTERN to STRING, returns capture from first group of parens."
  (let (
        (emacs-pattern (perlish-fix-regexps pattern))
        (found  "")
        )
    (if (string-match emacs-pattern string)
        (setq found (match-string 1 string))
      )
    ))

(perlish-match "ha, ha, ho, ho!" "(ha|ho)" )
(perlish-match
   "  \"  quote  \"  "
   "\"[ \t]*(.*?)[ \t]*\"")