diff --git a/mode/perl.py b/mode/perl.py
index 3c60b39..53072c4 100644
--- a/mode/perl.py
+++ b/mode/perl.py
@@ -13,21 +13,20 @@ class PodGrammar(Grammar):
         RegionRule(r'entry', r'(?<=^=encoding) +.*$', Grammar, '^\n$'),
     ]
 
-def _make_string_rules(forbidden=None):
-    if forbidden:
-        rule = PatternRule(r'scalar', r"\$[^\[\]\(\){}<>A-Za-z0-9 \\%s](?![A-Za-z0-9_])" % forbidden)
-    else:
-        rule = ContextPatternRule(r'scalar', r"\$[^\[\]\(\){}<>A-Za-z0-9 %(delim)s](?![A-Za-z0-9_])", r"\$[^A-Za-z0-9 ](?![A-Za-z0-9_])")
+def _make_string_rules(forbidden):
+    rule1 = PatternRule(r'scalar', r"\$[^\[\]\(\){}<>A-Za-z0-9 \\%s](?![A-Za-z0-9_])" % forbidden)
+    #rule2 = PatternRule(r'data', r"[^%s\\\@\$%%\&]+" % forbidden)
 
     rules = [
         PatternRule(r'octal', r'\\[0-7]{3}'),
         PatternRule(r'escaped', r'\\.'),
         PatternRule(r'deref', r"\$+[A-Za-z0-9_](?:[A-Za-z0-9_]|::)*(?:(?:->)?{\$?(?:[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*|'(?:\\.|[^'\\])*'|\"(\\.|[^\\\"])*\")}|(?:->)?\[\$?[0-9a-zA-Z_]+\])+"),
         PatternRule(r'length', r"\$#[A-Za-z0-9_](?:[A-Za-z0-9_]|::)*"),
-        rule,
+        rule1,
         PatternRule(r'scalar', r"\$\$*[A-Za-z0-9_](?:[A-Za-z0-9_]|::)*"),
         PatternRule(r'cast', r"[\$\@\%\&]{.*?}"),
         PatternRule(r'array', r"@\$*[A-Za-z_](?:[A-Za-z0-9_]|::)*"),
+        #rule2,
     ]
     return rules
 
@@ -36,7 +35,7 @@ class StrictStringGrammar(Grammar):
         PatternRule(r'escaped', r"\\'"),
     ]
 class StringGrammar(Grammar):
-    rules = _make_string_rules()
+    rules = _make_string_rules('"')
 
 class QuotedGrammar1(Grammar):
     rules = _make_string_rules(')')
@@ -139,11 +138,12 @@ class PerlGrammar(Grammar):
 
         # some basic stuff
         PatternRule(r'delimiter', r"::|->|=>|(?<!:):(?!=:)|[,;=\?(){}\[\]\(\)]"),
-        PatternRule(r'operator', r"\+=|-=|\*=|/=|//=|%=|&=\|\^=|>>=|<<=|\*\*="),
+        PatternRule(r'operator', r"\+=|-=|\*=|/=|//=|%=|&=\|\^=|>>=|<<=|\*\*=|\\"),
         PatternRule(r'operator', r"\+\+|\+|<=>|<>|<<|<=|<|-|>>|>=|>|\*\*|\*|&&|&|\|\||\||/|\^|==|//|~|=~|!~|!=|%|!|\.|x(?![a-zA-Z_])"),
         PatternRule(r'noperator', r"(?:xor|or|not|ne|lt|le|gt|ge|eq|cmp|and)(?![a-zA-Z_])"),
         PatternRule(r'bareword', r'(?:[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*::)*[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*'),
 
+        PatternRule(r'spaces', r' +'),
         PatternRule(r"eol", r"\n$"),
     ]
 
@@ -207,9 +207,10 @@ class PerlTabber(tab.StackTabber):
                not fqname.startswith('heredoc') and
                not fqname.startswith('perl_string') and
                not fqname.startswith('endblock') and
-               not fqname == 'eol' and 
-               not fqname == 'comment' and
-               not fqname == 'null' and
+               fqname != 'eol' and 
+               fqname != 'comment' and
+               fqname != 'spaces' and
+               fqname != 'null' and
                token.string not in ('}', ';', '(', '{', '[', ',')):
                 self._opt_append('cont', currlvl + w)
         return currlvl
@@ -418,14 +419,14 @@ class PerlWrapParagraph(method.WrapParagraph):
     def _is_newline(self, t):
         return t.name == 'eol'
     def _is_space(self, t):
-        return t.name == 'null' and regex.space.match(t.string)
+        return t.name == 'spaces'
 
     def _detect_line_type(self, w, y):
         h = w.buffer.highlights[w.mode.name()]
         ltype = None
         for t in h.tokens[y]:
             fqname = t.fqname()
-            if fqname == 'null' or fqname == 'eol':
+            if fqname == 'spaces' or fqname == 'eol':
                 pass
             elif fqname.startswith('comment'):
                 if ltype and ltype != 'comment':
diff --git a/mode/python.py b/mode/python.py
index 8caa1b2..0dd81fe 100644
--- a/mode/python.py
+++ b/mode/python.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ class PythonGrammar(Grammar):
         OverridePatternRule(r'comment', r'#@@:(?P<token>[.a-zA-Z0-9_]+):(?P<mode>[.a-zA-Z0-9_]+) *$'),
         PatternRule(r'comment', r'#.*$'),
         PatternRule(r'continuation', r'\\\n$'),
+        PatternRule(r'spaces', r' +'),
         PatternRule(r'eol', r'\n$'),
     ]
 
@@ -399,7 +400,7 @@ class PythonContext(context.Context):
         while i < y2:
             g = highlights.tokens[i]
             if (len(g) == 1 and g[0].name == 'eol' or
-                len(g) == 2 and g[0].name == 'null' and g[1].name == 'eol'):
+                len(g) == 2 and g[0].name == 'spaces' and g[1].name == 'eol'):
                 if last is None:
                     last = i
                 i += 1
@@ -407,7 +408,7 @@ class PythonContext(context.Context):
                     y2 += 1
                 continue
 
-            if g[0].name == 'null':
+            if g[0].name == 'spaces':
                 j, lvl = 1, len(g[0].string)
             else:
                 j, lvl = 0, 0
@@ -466,7 +467,7 @@ class Python(mode.Fundamental):
         'functionname':      ('blue', 'default', 'bold'),
         'classname':         ('green', 'default', 'bold'),
         'rawstring.start':   ('green', 'default', 'bold'),
-        'rawstring.null':    ('green', 'default', 'bold'),
+        'rawstring.data':    ('green', 'default', 'bold'),
         'rawstring.escaped': ('magenta', 'default', 'bold'),
         'rawstring.end':     ('green', 'default', 'bold'),
         'system_identifier': ('cyan', 'default', 'bold'),
diff --git a/tab.py b/tab.py
index f97e46f..8cd2b89 100644
--- a/tab.py
+++ b/tab.py
@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ class Marker(object):
 
 class Tabber(object):
     wsre = regex.whitespace
-    wst  = ('null', 'eol',)
+    wst  = ('spaces', 'null', 'eol',)
     sre  = regex.space
-    st   = ('null',)
+    st   = ('spaces', 'null',)
     def __init__(self, m):
         self.mode  = m
         self.lines = {}