# This is from memory so may not work
$binary_struct = read_from_somewhere();
$was_bits = unpack("b64",$binary_struct);
$now_bits = shuffle_bits($was_bits);
$float_val = unpack("d",pack("b64",$now_bits));

##</code><code>##

sub deduce_endian
  {
    my($v);

    # Deduce the machine's native FP format by encoding the 
    # number 2.5 as a bit string.  Once we know how to get
    # from doubles to bit strings we can deduce the function
    # for doing the reverse from our binary data
    $v = unpack("b64",pack("d",2.5));
    if($v eq 
    "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000000010"
              )
      {
        # Intel or something like it
        $endian = "ieee-little";
        $binary2double_fun = sub 
          {
            # We have to reverse the bitstring
            my $bits = reverse(shift);

            # Then map to floats
            return(unpack("d",pack("b64",$bits)));
          };
      }
    elsif($v eq 
    "0000001000100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
                  )
      {
        # *NIX hardware
        $endian = "ieee-big";
        $binary2double_fun = sub 
          {
            # a combination of pack and unpack will do it
            my $bits = shift;
            my $res;
            while($bits)
              {
                $res .= reverse(substr($bits,0,8));
                $bits = substr($bits,8);
              }
            return(unpack("d",pack("b64",$res)));
          };
      }
    else
      {
        print STDERR "Not configured for this machine yet\n";
        exit(20);
      }
  }

# Then I called it like this

    # Read from the file
    $out = hex2binary($in);

    # Then map this to our double representation
    deduce_endian() if(!$endian);
    return &{$binary2double_fun}($out) if($binary2double_fun);