From: Philip Mak <pmak@...>
Date: 2003-04-09T05:46:03+09:00
Subject: packing signed long in a portable fashion

Is there a way to pack() a signed long in a portable fashion (i.e. it
should work on both little endian and big endian machines)?

The pack() function has these options:
	'l' => { :signed => true, :network => false }
	'N' => { :signed => false, :network => true }

But I cannot find an option that is { :signed => true, :network => true }!

So if I pack with 'l', it won't work on different architectures. And
if I pack with 'N', it won't allow negative numbers.

For now, I think I have to pack with 'N', but add 2**32 before packing
and subtract 2**32 after unpacking, but I think there ought to be a
better way?