Initially, the algorithm was named as вЂњprintable encodingвЂќ and only after a couple of years, in June 1992, RFC 1341 defines it as вЂњBase64вЂќ. Since then, the algorithm has evolved, giving rise to new standards that are actively used throughout the world of IT. Of course, over time, other binary-to-text encodings were developed, but thanks to the simplicity, efficiency and portability, Base64 became the most popular and was used almost everywhere.ДЇor the first time the algorithm was described back in 1987 by a document describing the PEM protocol (if you are interested in the details, check the RFC 989 В§ 4.3). And so, in a magical way, clever minds develop an algorithm to solve these problems.

Moreover, there was another problem with mail servers - they could only send text, but not binary data (such as images, video, archives). For example, a mail server may discard the eighth bit when sending emails. This led to the fact that some data was simply lost during the transfer between the new and the old systems. By the time the eight-bit encoding was approved as a standard, many systems used old encodings and did not support the вЂњnew standardвЂќ. Now we use eight-bit bytes, but before that were used seven-bit, six-bit, and even three-bit bytes. The history of the Base64 started long ago, in those times when engineers argued how many bits should be in a byte. In fact, it is a binary-to-text encoding, whose task is to encode binary data into printable characters, when the data transmission channel or the storage medium cannot handle 8-bit character encodings. Well, the story about Alice and Bob is just a thought-out example to tell you what kind of problem solves the Base64 algorithm. I grouped bits only to show that each group meets each character of the Base64 string.

Even if you remove spaces or padding zeros from binary digits, the Base64 string will still be shorter. To reduce costs, Alice and Bob agree to use a more efficient data transfer method by using a special alphabet, which replaces every вЂњsix digitsвЂќ with one вЂњletterвЂќ. The second problem is that the tariffs for phone calls are too expensive and dictate each byte as 8 binary digits will last too long. In this case, Alice may convert the image into the binary system and dictate to Bob the binary digits (bits), after that he will be able to convert them back to the original image. The first problem is that she cannot simply describe how the image looks, because Bob needs an exact copy. To figuratively understand why Base64 was invented, imagine that during a phone call Alice wants to send an image to Bob. Thanks to it, you can convert Chinese characters, emoji, and even images into a вЂњreadableвЂќ string, which can be saved or transferred anywhere.

Guru A virtual teacher who reveals to you the great secrets of Base64Д«ase64 is a encoding algorithm that allows you to transform any characters into an alphabet which consists of Latin letters, digits, plus, and slash.

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