The reason it cuts off the text is because you're not using it right. You can't directly send a comma to an identifier, it will treat it as multiple tokens ($1, $2 etc).
Try this:
//var %x = Testing, and more testing | echo -a $hst(%x)
Using the variable circumvents the problem with the comma in your string that you're trying to strip.
For simple html stripping (not converting, which is the main reason for the snippet), use the .rem property:
$hst(%var).rem
You can find the original code
here.
My first post of 2007... better late than never
