I've found this code
$$xmlScalar_r = pack('U0C*', unpack('U0C*', SGMLencode_data($$xmlScalar_r)||(defined($$xmlScalar_r) ? $$xmlScalar_r : '') ));
regardless of everything in the end, it is then just something like:
$string = ...
$x = pack('U0C*', unpack('U0C*', $string));
I see nothing different which cannot be done as just
$x = $string #or without even $string, just $x = ...
so it would seem a useless usage of pack and unpack being the template the same.
Are there special cases of any sort (e.g. different environments, architectures)
where the pack/unpack achieve anything different ?
Thanks