thanks for the discussion. Stef
On 10 Mar 2014, at 13:22, Henrik Johansen <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 09 Mar 2014, at 9:50 , Sven Van Caekenberghe <[email protected]> wrote: > >> ZnBase64Encoder new encode: 42 asByteArray. >> => 'Kg==' >> >> (ZnBase64Encoder new decode: 'Kg==') asInteger. >> => 42 >> >> There is also #asByteArrayOfSize: and signed/unsigned might come into play >> as well. >> >> Note that strictly speaking (as implemented by ZnBase64Encoder), Base64 is a >> binary to string encoding. > > "String" is such a loose concept, binary -> safe ASCII subset, really. > Since Stef’s motivation was understanding (which in my mind always includes > *why* something is done), the implication of that, is that you can safely > transmit the data over any medium, with no fear of any intermediary > transaction participant misinterpreting the data. > > The cost of this is a 33% overhead (3 binary bytes -> 4 encoded bytes), which > isn’t all that bad compared to alternatives like using the hex printstring. > (Which, by the way, was fairly recently added as the “new” standard binary > format in postgres, I’d love to see the discussion where THAT ended up as the > preferred alternative… > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/datatype-binary.html) > > Cheers, > Henry > >
