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Rubbish. It's possible to have poorly defined text formats just as easily as binary formats. Remind me how to read CSV again? How do I store 64-bit integers in JSON?

Text formats are popular because you don't have to use a special tool to view them. That's the only reason.



> Text formats are popular because you don't have to use a special tool to view them. That's the only reason.

But you need a special tool to get a computer to read them. Seems like not a win. Throw in compression & encryption... and suddenly you need a special tool anyway.




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