Is there just no good resource on putting data in a uint8_t[] buffer and getting it out again in a correct way in c++? Putting in a string or an unsigned number is easy but annoyingly verbose. Using a struct to represent the buffer seems to work great but is adviced against with packing and compatability :( 

 @ec6e9c30, could thou elaborate on the task?  As in a homogeneous buffer with dynamic length or a packed struct?