[Python-Dev] an idea for improving struct.unpack api

Thu Jan 6 11:28:26 CET 2005

My take on this:
 struct.pack/struct.unpack is already one of my least-favourite parts 
 of the stdlib. Of the modules I use regularly, I pretty much only ever
 have to go back and re-read the struct (and re) documentation because
 they just won't fit in my brain. Adding additional complexity to them 
 seems like a net loss to me. 
 I'd _love_ to find the time to write a sane replacement for struct - as
 well as the current use case, I'd also like it to handle things like
 attribute-length-value 3-tuples nicely (where you get a fixed field 
 which identifies the attribute, a fixed field which specifies the value
 length, and a value of 'length' bytes). Almost all sane network protocols
 (i.e. those written before the plague of pointy brackets) use this in
 some way.
 I'd much rather specify the format as something like a tuple of values -
 (INT, UINT, INT, STRING) (where INT &c are objects defined in the
 struct module). This also then allows users to specify their own formats
 if they have a particular need for something.
Anthony
-- 
Anthony Baxter <anthony at interlink.com.au>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.