Base32

This library provides utilities for converting byte-strings to and from an encoding based on Crockford’s Base32 encoding.

Compared to similar Base32 encodings like RFC 4648, Crockford’s encoding has a few desirable characteristics which make it especially appealing for user-facing use:

• Potentially ambiguous characters, like i, I, l, and L are treated as synonyms.

• The digits 0 through F have the same value as their hexadecimal counterparts.

• The letter U is invalid, lowering the surface area for obscene encodings.

This library deviates from Crockford’s encoding by encoding strings as lower-case by default. Hyphens are also disallowed as spacing and check characters are unimplemented, although this is a shortcoming of the implementation.

1 API

1.1 Encoding and decoding byte-strings

1.2 Encoding and decoding ports

If close? is #t, in will be closed once eof is reached.

If close? is #t, in will be closed once eof is reached.

1.3 Comparing base32 strings

Because some characters are synonymous, two Base32 encodings may be representationally equivalent but not structurally equivalent.

2 Conversion table

The following table shows the decimal value for each valid base32 character. When encoding, this library always chooses the first base32 representation in the table below.