The main concern with text format is that it doesn't have nearly as good
backwards- and forwards- compatibility as the binary format. E.g. what
happens if you release your program, and then in a future update want to
remove or rename a field? The new binary format code would have no trouble
readi
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160
If you're worried, just spec your format such that when you write a
binary-format file, you shove a magic unprintable signature on the
front. Now when you want to load data, try to parse it as binary first
(looking for the signature) and, if it do
