Many thanks for the helpful replies that included the use of wperl as an alternate to launching a Perl application.
I need to file and read in data stored in hashes. The Programming Perl manual (Third edition page 287) shows how to use Data::Dumper but also says that ‘packed binary’ is very fast. I have been looking for examples of how to use ‘packed binary’ (presumably you convert the hash to a packed binary structure then file it). However, my search has failed. Therefore this novice would appreciate some help in how to pack and file and read in and unpack a hash.

In reply to How to use packed binary data by merrymonk

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