+Neither using offsets nor adding C<x>'s to bridge the gaps is satisfactory.
+(Just imagine what happens if the structure changes.) What we really need
+is a way of saying "skip as many bytes as required to the next multiple of N".
+In fluent Templatese, you say this with C<x!N> where N is replaced by the
+appropriate value. Here's the next version of our struct packaging:
+
+ my $gappy = pack( 'c x!2 s c x!4 l!', $c1, $s, $c2, $l );
+
+That's certainly better, but we still have to know how long all the
+integers are, and portability is far away. Rather than C<2>,
+for instance, we want to say "however long a short is". But this can be
+done by enclosing the appropriate pack code in brackets: C<[s]>. So, here's
+the very best we can do:
+
+ my $gappy = pack( 'c x![s] s c x![l!] l!', $c1, $s, $c2, $l );
+
+
+=head2 Dealing with Endian-ness
+
+Now, imagine that we want to pack the data for a machine with a
+different byte-order. First, we'll have to figure out how big the data
+types on the target machine really are. Let's assume that the longs are
+32 bits wide and the shorts are 16 bits wide. You can then rewrite the
+template as:
+
+ my $gappy = pack( 'c x![s] s c x![l] l', $c1, $s, $c2, $l );
+
+If the target machine is little-endian, we could write:
+
+ my $gappy = pack( 'c x![s] s< c x![l] l<', $c1, $s, $c2, $l );
+
+This forces the short and the long members to be little-endian, and is
+just fine if you don't have too many struct members. But we could also
+use the byte-order modifier on a group and write the following:
+
+ my $gappy = pack( '( c x![s] s c x![l] l )<', $c1, $s, $c2, $l );
+
+This is not as short as before, but it makes it more obvious that we
+intend to have little-endian byte-order for a whole group, not only
+for individual template codes. It can also be more readable and easier
+to maintain.
+