# put commas in the right places in an integer
    1 while s/(\d)(\d\d\d)(?!\d)/$1,$2/g;

    # expand tabs to 8-column spacing
    1 while s/\t+/' ' x (length($&)*8 - length($`)%8)/e;

##</code><code>##

my $foo = ':{,"';
1 while $foo =~ s/([:,{])(?! )(.)/$1 $2/;
print ">$foo<\n";

##</code><code>##

19:22 >perl 1872_SoPW.pl
>: { , "<

19:22 >