
Why are so many internet protocols text-based? - edward
https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/47539/why-are-so-many-internet-protocols-text-based
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sovok_x
Textual data and exchanges are often self-describing. They're easier to debug
and monitor visually. Try debugging or reverse-engineering binary exchange
with some obscure proprietary protocol to see why this matters.

In the end it is more about human convenience on the highest levels of OSI and
less about transfer efficiency.

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lonelappde
No one there mentioned the Unix Philosophy.

"Text is the universal interface."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Doug_McIlroy_on_Unix_programming

