diff --git a/dbLoadTemplate b/dbLoadTemplate
index a5bc6cc..6e842d3 100755
--- a/dbLoadTemplate
+++ b/dbLoadTemplate
@@ -1,18 +1,13 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env perl
-
-#$Author: zimoch $
-#$Date: 2008/09/19 11:13:04 $
-#$Revision: 1.1 $
-#$Id: dbLoadTemplate,v 1.1 2008/09/19 11:13:04 zimoch Exp $
-
 use strict;
 
 my $QUOTECHAR = '"';
 my $NOWORDCHAR = ",(){}=";
 
-my $NOWORD=qr/[${NOWORDCHAR}${QUOTECHAR}]/;
-my $WORD=qr/[^\s${NOWORDCHAR}${QUOTECHAR}]+/;
-my $STRING=qr/(?:$QUOTECHAR([^$QUOTECHAR]*)$QUOTECHAR)/;
+my $NOWORD=qr/[${NOWORDCHAR}${QUOTECHAR}]/;                # single non-word character
+my $WORD=qr/[^\s${NOWORDCHAR}${QUOTECHAR}]+/;              # unquoted word
+my $STRING=qr/(?:$QUOTECHAR((?:\\.|\\\n|.)*?)$QUOTECHAR)/; # quoted string
+my $SUBST=qr/(\$\(.*?\)|[^\s${NOWORDCHAR}${QUOTECHAR}])+/; # unquoted word with $(macro) allowed
 
 # nextToken returns the next input word, string, or char
 # It skips comments and whitespace
@@ -28,9 +23,9 @@ sub nextToken {
             die "unexpected end of file in $ARGV\n";
         }
     }
-    $input =~ s/^\s*($WORD|$STRING|$NOWORD)\s*(#.*\n?)?//;
+    $input =~ s/^\s*($WORD|$STRING|$NOWORD|$SUBST)\s*(#.*\n?)?//;
     $1 ne $QUOTECHAR or die "unterminated string in $ARGV line $.\n";
-    # print STDERR "nextToken from $ARGV line $. is $1\n";
+    #print STDERR "nextToken from $ARGV line $. is $1\n";
     $1;
 }
 
@@ -62,9 +57,9 @@ sub expect {
         }
         $success or die "parse error in $ARGV line $.: found '$_' instead of $desc\n";
     }
-    if (s/^"(.*)"$/$1/) {
-        %subst and s/\$\(([^\)]*)\)/replace($1)/ge;
-    }
+    s/^$QUOTECHAR(.*)$QUOTECHAR$/$1/; # remove quotes around strings
+    m/\$\(([^)]*)$/ and die "unterminated macro \$($1 in $ARGV line $.\n";
+    %subst and s/\$\((.*?)\)/replace($1)/ge; # replace macros
     $_;
 }
 
@@ -122,7 +117,7 @@ sub parseSubst {
                     $macro = expect "$WORD|,|} macro name";
                 } while $_ eq ",";   # ignore commas
                 last if $_ eq '}';
-                expect "=", "$WORD|$STRING value for $macro";
+                expect "=", "$STRING|$SUBST value for $macro";
                 $subst{$macro} = $_;
             }
             parseTemplate $filename;
@@ -145,7 +140,7 @@ sub parseSubst {
             last if $_ eq "}";
             foreach my $macro (@macros) {
                 do {
-                    expect "$WORD|$STRING|, value for $macro";
+                    expect "$STRING|$SUBST|, value for $macro";
                 } while $_ eq ",";  # ignore commas
                 $subst{$macro} = $_;
             }