It's a pretty incomplete API. You didn't even support the integer formats used by most communication protocols.

And then what happened?

As for memorable and self-documenting, all that's needed here is sub parse_myformat_rec { ... }

Ah yes, dot dot dot, the correct answer

That would be more meaningful and surely at least 10 times faster. If so, that's the difference between 6 seconds and 60 seconds when processing large files as is usually the case with such code.

Ah yes, the master pedant is baiting the hook

So why did you go out of your way to write code that will read your integers on those platforms?

So you will have something to talk about

perlpacktut recommends Convert::Binary::C for C structs. Your API isn't easier at handling those; it's completely useless at handling alignment.

Bravo sir, you win