binary_reader.py

import struct

# See https://docs.python.org/2/library/struct.html
typeNames = {
    "char": "b",
    "uchar": "B",
    "short": "h",
    "ushort": "H",
    "int": "i",
    "uint": "I",
    "long": "q", # maybe l
    "ulong": "Q", # maybe L
    "float": "f",
    "double": "d",
}

class BinaryReader:
    def __init__(self, fileName):
        self.file = open(fileName, 'rb')

    def read(self, type):
        if type != "string":
            char = typeNames[type]
            size = struct.calcsize(char)
            return struct.unpack(char, self.file.read(size))[0]

        # We got this far, which means that we are dealing with a string
        len = self.read("char")
        if len > 128:
            len2 = self.read("char")
            len = (len % 128) + (len2 * 128)
        return self.file.read(len)