From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2004-06-14T14:48:38+09:00
Subject: Re: [RCR]: Replace pack and unpack with OO versions

Bill Atkins <dejaspam@batkins.com> wrote:
> Rather than having code like this:
> 
> flags, ignore, length, name = data.unpack "nnna*"
> 
> let's try this:
> 
> u = Unpacker.new data
> flags, ignore, length, name = u.word, u.word, u.word, u.string
> 
> I think this looks a lot neater and is much more maintainable.  A
> similar thing could be done with pack.

Alternatively, something I've been thinking of is to let pack and unpack
take array arguments, which are 'compiled' into pack/unpack strings.

e.g.  flags, ignore, length, name = u.unpack [:word, :word, :word,
:string]

All the compiler would have to do is translate symbols, and pass numbers
through unchanged. Or, if you wanted to construct it in terms of pairs
like [[:string, 3]], just run a flatten first.

martin