BinaryTF
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---
## About
`Binary Term Format` is a term format inspired in ETF with more types and circular reference serialization and deserialization.
This term format is designed to fix one of ETF's flaws: byte size.
Serializing this object:
```json
{
"test": ["hello", "world"],
"more": {
"nested": "objects",
"do": ["you", "like", "it?"]
}
}
```
Takes `80` bytes as `JSON.stringify()`'d, `116` bytes as `ETF` using [`devsnek/earl`][earl], and just `71` bytes in `BTF`.
The extreme compression is achieved by delimiting the bytes using a technique similar to [null delimited string](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null-terminated_string)s. Allowing every string, array, set, map, and object, to trim the byte size by 3 (4 bytes for length/size -> 1 byte to delimit the field). TypedArrays do not get this feature, since they have a type for all elements instead of a type for each element, `[0]` works because it is encoded as `ArrayType` + `NumberByteLiteralType` + `0x00` + `NullDelimiter`, but this technique would not work in `Uint8Array[0]` (`Uint8ArrayType` + `0x00 + 0x00 + 0x00 + 0x01` + `0x00`).
And this is also achieved by using special types for empty collections, `[null]` takes 3 bytes (`ArrayType` + `NullType` + `NullDelimiter`), but `[]` takes a single byte (`EmptyArrayType`). This also applies to empty objects, sets, and maps.
## Usage
This module is [plug-and-play](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_and_play), it exposes two functions, `serialize` and `deserialize`, and would be used in the following way:
```javascript
const { serialize, deserialize } = require('binarytf');
const serialized = serialize({ hello: 'world' });
const deserialized = deserialize(serialized);
console.log(deserialized); // { hello: 'world' }
```
This module is TypeScript ready and comes with types included. To import with ESM use the following syntax:
```typescript
import { serialize, deserialize } from 'binarytf';
```
## Credit
`binarytf` is heavily based on [`devsnek/earl`][earl], this module wouldn't be possible without it's author:
- [Gus Caplan](https://github.com/devsnek)
## Contributing
1. Fork it!
1. Create your feature branch: `git checkout -b my-new-feature`
1. Commit your changes: `git commit -am 'Add some feature'`
1. Push to the branch: `git push origin my-new-feature`
1. Submit a pull request!
## Author
**binarytf** © [kyranet](https://github.com/kyranet), released under the
[MIT](https://github.com/binarytf/binarytf/blob/main/LICENSE.md) License.
Authored and maintained by kyranet.
> Github [kyranet](https://github.com/kyranet) - Twitter [@kyranet\_](https://twitter.com/kyranet_)
[earl]: https://github.com/devsnek/earl
## Contributors
Please make sure to read the [Contributing Guide][contributing] before making a
pull request.
Thank you to all the people who already contributed!
[contributing]: .github/CONTRIBUTING.md