#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $line = "  Bart  Lisa Maggie Marge Homer  ";
# notice the leading and trailing spaces
my @simpsons;
for ( " ", '\s', '\s+' ) {
    print "delimiter /$_/\n";
    @simpsons = split ( /$_/, $line );
    print map {"<$_>"} @simpsons;
    print $/;
}
print "delimiter ' '\n";
@simpsons = split ( ' ', $line );
print map {"<$_>"} @simpsons;
print $/;
__END__

delimiter / /
<><><Bart><><Lisa><Maggie><Marge><Homer>

delimiter /\s/
<><><Bart><><Lisa><Maggie><Marge><Homer>

delimiter /\s+/
<><Bart><Lisa><Maggie><Marge><Homer>

delimiter ' '
<Bart><Lisa><Maggie><Marge><Homer>