[Tutor] convert ascii to binary

[Dave Angel]

On 09/12/2012 07:54 AM, Joel Goldstick wrote:
>  <snip>
> A couple of thoughts.  The section you reference suggests using higher
> level modules such as uu.
> uu seems to want to read an ascii file and write a uu encoded file.
>
> I just read the wikipedia article on uuencoding, since I have heard of
> it, but never needed to know about it.  It is apparently a pretty old
> method of transforming 3 consecutive 8 bit ascii characters into 4 6
> bit uuencoded characters so that they can be sent between (unix)
> computers.

It's old in the sense that it was defined a long time ago.  But it's
current, and variations of it are used regularly in email, as one way to
send binary attachments.  Look at the mime type called base64.

It converts 3 consecutive 8-bit NON-ASCII bytes into 4 consecutive 7-bit
ASCII characters.

I'm not sure what that has to do with the OP question.

> What are you really trying to do?  Is this for experimenting with
> python? or are you trying to solve some larger problem?
>
>


-- 

DaveA