Binary

STATUS: PROPOSALS, DISCUSSION

JavaScript does not have a binary data type. However, in server-side scenarios, binary data needs to be often processed. That is why we need some working byte or binary array or string class.

Proposals

1. Binary/A Proposal A from Ondras
2. Binary/B Proposal B from Kris Kowal (implemented by a few platforms)
3. Binary/C Proposal C from Daniel Friesen
4. Binary/D Proposal D from Kris Kowal (based on Binary/B, -array-comprehsiveness, +bits, +radix-encoding)
5. Binary/E Proposal E (based on Binary/D with byte string [[Get]] returning Number instead of ByteString, +Binary base type, -bits, -radix-encoding, -patching)
6. Binary/Lite Proposal "Lite" from Ondras (single Binary type -charsets)
7. Binary/F Proposal F (based on Binary/E but viciously trimmed, -ByteString, s/ByteArray/Buffer/ -flexible length)

Binary/B is the one which was standardized. Additional work was done on subsequent proposals to find something of greater use and less weight, but that work is essentially unfinished.

Prior Art

• Adobe AIR's ByteArray
• Mozilla's nsIBinaryInputStream
• Mozilla's nsIBinaryOutputStream
• EJScript ByteArray
• Google Gears Blob
• JSlibs Blob
• Flusspferd Blob repository link (since it has been removed, the docs might go away at some point)
• W3C File API (blob, FileBlob, readAsBinaryString, readAsDataUrl)

Relevant Discussions

• First Proposal
• Comments on Binary object
• Binary API Brouhaha
• ByteArray and ByteString proposal regarding proposal B
• Binary/C - range for memcopy
• ByteString / ByteArray duality
• Alternate binary proposal regarding Binary/C
• Typed Arrays strawman on the EcmaScript wiki which cites Khronos's proposed TypedArray spec as its primary source.

Encodings are a related topic.