binary vs text protocols

Question

I am wondering what the differences are between binary and text based protocols. I read that binary protocols are more compacts/faster to process. How does that work out? Since you have to send the same amount of data? No?

E.g how would the string "hello" differ in size in binary format?

Answer 1

If all you are doing is transmitting text, then yes, the difference between the two isn't very significant. But consider trying to transmit things like:

• Numbers - do you use a string representation of a number, or the binary? Especially for large numbers, the binary will be more compact.
• Data Structures - How do you denote the beginning and ending of a field in a text protocol? Sometimes a binary protocol with fixed length fields is more compact.

Answer 2

Text protocols are better in terms of readability, ease of reimplementing, and ease of debugging. Binary protocols are more compact.

However, you can compress your text using a library like LZO or Zlib, and this is almost as compact as binary (with very little performance hit for compression/decompression.)

You can read more info on the subject here:
http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch05s01.html