joshuaulrich/pack

Add ability to use Python-style templates

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#2 opened on Mar 2, 2015

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Description

Currently, only perl-style templates are supported. It would be nice to support python-style templates.

It's not clear what is the best way to provide this functionality. A global option (via options) is undesirable because it makes reproducibility more difficult. Making pack and unpack generic and dispatching on a template class seems overkill. Adding an argument could be confusing, since the template and the argument might not agree.

Perhaps the easiest way is to let users start the template string with the template type? For example, pack("pl A4 C v", 2, 8, 'sequence'). The "pl" prefix would denote a perl-style template. A "py" prefix would denote a python-style template.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Study the existing perl style template parsing and implement a similar parser for python style format strings. Ensure compatibility with Python's struct module.
Tech stack
r
Domain
backend
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
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Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
RGit
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
55