11 Aug
2004
11 Aug
'04
6:32 a.m.
On Wed, 11 Aug 2004, Roger Merchberger wrote:
Different systems interpret binary data differently,
especially if there is
human-readable code within the file. MS-DOS very likely could think the
file is binary, and the first hex 0x06 would terminate the file. However,
if it is considered binary many viewers wouldn't open it if it's got
non-printable ASCII characters within.
Or -- how about transferring this file from MS-DOS <=> Linux <=> MacOS
<=>
BeOS ... will it (and if so, how will it) convert line ending chars, tabs &
other binary chars? A hex representation will reduce conversion problems
measurably - remember, this is supposed to be an "ultra-portable" format.
All very good points, which is why binary data should not be included.
If we're already going to take this
"beyond" the spec, couldn't we
institute some RLE encoding as well?
The spec will definitely benefit from some sort of compression feature
that can be implemented using tags, as was described previously.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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