while ($currpos < $filelen){
    my ($readLen) = read $dpf, my ($recordID), 3;
    if (isValidID($recordID)) {
        #check the record length
        #if it is good, then parse the record for errors there
        #if the record is the wrong length, then skip parsing
        #when we read the next 3 chars we will probably not read a valid ID
        #and should begin hunting
    }
    elsif ($readLen == 3) {
        do {
	    $dpf =~ m/\G.*MEH|MED|MMD|MMS|CR1|FR1/ig;
	} until (pos() >= $currpos);
            #this should put me at the record ID of the last
            #record I tried to parse
            #I will imagine there is a better way, particularly if
            #I can start from where the file pointer is and not from the beginning of the file
	if ($dpf =~ m/\G.*MEH|MED|MMD|MMS|CR1|FR1/ig) {  #matching one more time will (hopefully) match the next record ID
	    seek $dpf, pos(), 0;
	}   #if it doesn't match, then this truncated record is the last record in the file (typical)
	else {
	    seek $dpf, 0, 2;
	}
    }			
    else {    #if I didn't read three characters, then I hit EOF, seek there so $currpos will be updated and we will fall out of the while{}
        seek $dpf, 0, 2;
    }
    $currpos = tell $dpf;
}  #end while