why even bother with pack()? Pass around something(... a hunk of memory) that is X x Y ints big

That is exactly what he is doing! He's also choosen to initialise it to zeros.

He could also have done that without using pack, say my $buf = chr(0) x ( $x_dimension * $y_dimension * 4 ), but that would then fail if the code is ever ported to a system where the C compiler ints are 64-bit. The way he has choesen to perform the initialisation makes it quite clear what memory represents. A good choice I think.

I am also challenging the need for 'C' in the first place.

You must have a crystal ball then, because I do not see enough information in the OP to give me the confidence to raise such a challenge.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP PCW It is as I've been saying!(Audio until 20090817)

In reply to Re^6: Passing a bytestring from Perl to Inline::C as a 2d array by BrowserUk
in thread Passing a bytestring from Perl to Inline::C as a 2d array by maasha

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