binary data files

[Steve Summit]

In article <1271 at l.cc.purdue.edu> cik at l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>There is another bad thing.  We may not have a good ASCII representation for
>the data.  One example is a multi-font system.  Another example is floating
>point data; there is no standard floating point binary, and conversion to and
>from decimal is a source of roundoff errors, which may even be serious.

Or it may be innocuous.  The data I typically manipulate is
derived from a medium-quality A/D converter with 4 or 5 digits of
precision; I'd be misleading myself if I were to take steps to
ensure that my data files could handle more.

I'm not sure what the comment about non-ASCII/multi font systems
means.  Is the implication that binary formats (bit-for-bit
copies of the machine's internal floating-point format) are
somehow less susceptible to such portability concerns?

                                            Steve Summit
                                            scs at adam.pika.mit.edu