Short of getting jiggy with the translate command (
tr(1)) or some comparable tool, I would think you would have to find something with a totally different regular expression syntax; or live with live with escaping things you want to manipulate.
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Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.