2:03 >perl -MData::Dump -wE "my @c = unpack '(A2)*', 'f 12dx z'; dd \@c;"
["f", 12, "dx", " z"]

 2:04 >

##</code><code>##

print unpack 'C*', pack '(Z2)*', 'fr','ed','x';;
102 0 101 0 120 0  ## Note! the 'r' & 'd' characters have been thrown away? Another bug?