Re: I/O fo binary data

[Justin Cormack <justin@...>]

On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Marc Balmer <marc@msys.ch> wrote:
> Hi
>
> How do you deal with I/O of binary data?  Do you use the standard io
> functions somehow or did you write your own bindings?
>
> As strings are 8-bit clean and can contain embedded zeroes, I have the
> feeling that they can be well used for binary data.
>
> Any thoughts, experiences, etc.?
>

You can use strings, although there is not usually much point
interning binary data, so it is just an overhead.

As Steve says, a struct-like library is useful if your binary parsing
is struct-like, it depends what it is though if its compressed or
images its going to be a bit different. I don't think there is a
generic case, "binary" is a broad church. I would start with the
parsing structure, work out what a nice API for that is and work from
there.

Justin