struct.unpack format notation to be able to express groups of data
with parenthesis.
For example:
data = struct.pack('iiii', 1, 2, 3, 4)
struct.unpack('i(ii)i', data) # Note the parentheses
(1, (2, 3), 4)
Use Case: I have a program written in C that contains a bunch of
aggregate data structures (arrays of structs, structs containing
arrays, etc.) and I'm transmitting these structures over a socket
connection to a Python program that then unpacks the data using the
struct module. Problem is that I have to unpack the incoming data as
a flat sequence of data elements, and then repartition the sequence
into nested sequences to better reflect how the data is structured in
the C program. It would be more convenient to express these groupings
as I'm unpacking the raw data.
I'm sure there are plenty of other use cases for such a feature.
Matthew Barnes
