Parse::Binary(3pm)

✨ Parse::Binary ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because this is Parse::Binary, a Perl module (yes, the (3pm) kind, we're in manpage territory 💅) and it's genuinely one of those "wait this is so smart" situations. It unpacks binary data structures into object hierarchies. iconic behavior tbh.

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🌸 VERSION 🌸

This doc describes version 0.11 of Parse::Binary, released January 25, 2009. vintage! retro! a little elder-millennial but we respect it 🫶

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

okay so first up, this class represents a Win32 .ico file:

package IconFile;
use base 'Parse::Binary';
use constant FORMAT => (
    Magic           => 'a2',
    Type            => 'v',
    Count           => 'v',
    'Icon'          => [ 'a16', '{$Count}', 1 ],
    Data            => 'a*',
);

and this one is a single icon resource, like the little guy inside:

package Icon;
use base 'Parse::Binary';
use constant FORMAT => (
    Width           => 'C',
    Height          => 'C',
    ColorCount      => 'C',
    Reserved        => 'C',
    Planes          => 'v',
    BitCount        => 'v',
    ImageSize       => 'V',
    ImageOffset     => 'v',
);
sub Data {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->parent->substr($self->ImageOffset, $self->ImageSize);
}

and here's a simple little .ico dumper that uses both of them, because of course:

use IconFile;
my $icon_file = IconFile->new('input.ico');
foreach my $icon ($icon_file->members) {
    print "Dimension: ", $icon->Width, "x", $icon->Height, $/;
    print "Colors: ", 2 ** $icon->BitCount, $/;
    print "Image Size: ", $icon->ImageSize, " bytes", $/;
    print "Actual Size: ", length($icon->Data), " bytes", $/, $/;
}
$icon_file->write('output.ico'); # save as another .ico file

like. it reads the file, prints the stats, and writes it back out. main character energy fr fr 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the whole point of this module is that parsing binary data structures gets so much easier. It works by being a base class for classes that represent the binary data — and those classes can contain objects of other classes to represent parts of themselves. it's giving nesting dolls but make it bytes 💖

ngl, the documentation is unfortunately a bit lacking at this moment 😭 that's literally what the original says, not me being dramatic.

If you want actual examples of how to use this thing, go read the tests and the source code of Parse::AFP and Win32::Exe. that's where the real ones learn. iykyk ✨

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Audrey Tang <cpan@audreyt.org> — legend behavior, no cap 🫶

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright 2004-2009 by Audrey Tang <cpan@audreyt.org>.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>

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🌈 one last thing bestie 🌈

This page ships with perl v5.36.0, dated 2022-12-04. yeah the module is from 2009 and the manpage footer is from 2022, we love a timeless queen 💅 go parse something. periodt. 🎀🦋✨