[om] query on binary encoding of OpenMath

[Michael Kohlhase]

Bill,

thanks for the insistence, I have worked most with the binary encoding this 
time, so the question is problably for me to answer.

However, I just do not know. I can only assume that this makes enc0ding/decoding 
faster. Does anybody who was involved in the first round of the binary encoding 
remember?

Michael
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W Naylor wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a query regarding the binary encoding of big integers in OpenMath. 
> I asked this question some months back but didn't get any response. So I'm 
> going to try again, maybe someone can enlighten me ;-)
> 
> "I also have a query about the encoding for big integers, in the most
> general form. Why are they encoded as a length, followed by the base 10 or
> base 16 representation as characters? Surely if the idea of this encoding
> is compactness, it is better to send the size and the value. This would 
> give
> a saving of a factor of two for base 16 and more for base 10! You don't
> lose any information because you still know that the 'source' OpenMath is
> base 10/16 because of the 'sign/base' byte."
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Bill
> 
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