a

And, to the original question: I think the idea is to 'inch along'

  for (split m!("(?:\\\W|.)*?"|/\*|\*/)!) {
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will return the pieces ending w/ an escaped non-word char, a single char or the comment begin/end markers. Hmm, an escaped non-word char or a single char in quotes? No, as many \\\w|. as found between quotes. I guess so:

biff = "not a comment /*";
/* marker for not a comment */
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won't start $in_comment too early.

a