Offset248

Offset248 is a technique for encoding binary to text that can be easily copied and pasted. Rather than encoding bytes to another base, Offset248 keeps the data in base 256 and simply renders the each byte into a unicode character.

###Method

The character used for each byte is a standard unicode character offset by 248. So if you have a byte value of 0, you select the unicode character 248 ("ø").

For example, the Wikidata favicon (101 bytes) encodes to:

ƁňņĿąĂĒĂøøøąŁŀļŊøøøĈøøøĈĀþøøøėǫǷřøøøĤŁļĹŌŰǒśŘĐĖŘĞûƻŷŜĄĊīƖƑǮėżƹĂǊŞǶĿƹǠǪƛþƄĒĸčûžĮøøğźǟđǩĒąĤøøøøŁĽņļƦĺŘź

###Benefits

This offset was chosen because every character in the range 248-503 is recognized as a character and not a separator. Thus, when you print out the encoding, you can double click the text and the entire row will highlight. This makes for easy copy and pasting of data.
The character length of the encoded string is the byte length of the binary data. This can be helpful when you are character constrained (like Twitter) rather than byte constrained and base64 or base58 encoding is too large.
Encoders and decoders are super simple. No splitting bytes or bitwise operations. Just an integer offest.

###Full Character Map

øùúûüýþÿĀāĂăĄąĆćĈĉĊċČčĎďĐđĒēĔĕĖėĘęĚěĜĝĞğĠġĢģĤĥĦħĨĩĪīĬĭĮįİıĲĳĴĵĶķĸĹĺĻļĽľĿŀŁłŃńŅņŇňŉŊŋŌōŎŏŐőŒœŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠšŢţŤťŦŧŨũŪūŬŭŮůŰűŲųŴŵŶŷŸŹźŻżŽžſƀƁƂƃƄƅƆƇƈƉƊƋƌƍƎƏƐƑƒƓƔƕƖƗƘƙƚƛƜƝƞƟƠơƢƣƤƥƦƧƨƩƪƫƬƭƮƯưƱƲƳƴƵƶƷƸƹƺƻƼƽƾƿǀǁǂǃǄǅǆǇǈǉǊǋǌǍǎǏǐǑǒǓǔǕǖǗǘǙǚǛǜǝǞǟǠǡǢǣǤǥǦǧǨǩǪǫǬǭǮǯǰǱǲǳǴǵǶǷ

###Example Encoders/Decoders

####Python

def encode(input):
    return u"".join(unichr(b + 248) for b in input) #use chr() for Python 3

def decode(input):
    return [ord(c) - 248 for c in input]

test = [1,3,3,7]
encoded = encode(test) #u"ùûûÿ"
decoded = decode(encoded)
print u"[1,3,3,7] => \"{}\", test={}".format(encoded, test == decoded)

####Javascript

function encode(input) {
    for(var i = 0, output = ""; i < input.length; i++)
        output += String.fromCharCode(input[i] + 248);
    return output;
}

function decode(input) {
    for(var i = 0, output = []; i < input.length; i++)
        output.push(input.charCodeAt(i) - 248);
    return output;
}

var test = [1,3,3,7]; //can be Uint8Array, too
var encoded = encode(test); //"ùûûÿ"
var decoded = decode(encoded);
console.log("[1,3,3,7] => \"%s\", test=%s", encoded, test.toString() === decoded.toString());

Pull Requests Wanted! Add an encoder and decoder for your favorite language

###License

All documentation and example code is released as public domain.

diafygi / Offset248

Offset248

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