Encoding Plain Text
Binary-to-text encoding methods are also used as a mechanism for encoding plain text. For example:
- Some systems have a more limited character set they can handle; not only are they not 8-bit clean, some can't even handle every printable ASCII character.
- Other systems have limits on the number of characters that may appear between line breaks, such as the "1000 characters per line" limit of some SMTP software, as allowed by RFC 2821.
- Still others add headers or trailers to the text.
- A few poorly-regarded but still-used protocols use in-band signaling, causing confusion if specific patterns appear in the message. The best-known is the string "From " (including trailing space) at the beginning of a line used to separate mail messages in the mbox file format.
By using a binary-to-text encoding on messages that are already plain text, then decoding on the other end, one can make such systems appear to be completely transparent. This is sometimes referred to as 'ASCII armoring'. For example, the ViewState component of ASP.NET uses base64 encoding to safely transmit text via HTTP POST.
Read more about this topic: Binary-to-text Encoding
Famous quotes containing the words plain and/or text:
““One ought not to be thrown into confusion
By a plain statement of relationship....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren’t a little flower somebody sewed on.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)