jbenet / jbenet/random-ideas

JRFC 17 - <base>b<digits> -- ascii string encoding base prefixes

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Description

When ascii encoding numbers of different bases, we either (a) signal elsewhere what the base is (non self describing and to be avoided), or (b) prefix the characters with a base identifier:

```
0b010101 binary
0xabcdef hex
```

But what about other bases? base32, base64, base58 are all popular. What about this encoding:

```
b
2b010101 binary
16babcdef hex
32b123wer base32
58b01AaBb base58
64bAaBb-_ base64
```
- flexible to any base
- completely self-describing
- no need to maintain a well-known table of identifiers
- (still need to maintain a table of alphabets)

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