Binary Encoding
What Binary Is
Binary is a computer language. It is written as base 2 meaning that the entire language is written in ones and zeros. Although it is hard to understand by humans, it has the advantage of being concise for computers because the ones and zeros represent off and on switches. All digital technology uses binary.
Base Conversions
Our decimal system uses base ten. This means that for every single digit, there can be 10 numbers: 0-9. This system has the advantage of being easy to understand. It also holds large amounts of information within a short space. Base 16 was made to bridge the gap between binary and human language. Base 16 means that for every single digit there are 16 numbers and letters: 0-9 and A-F. It is designed to be easily converted to the decimal system and the the binary system. Because Base 2 contains little information in a large space, base 16 is regularly used to shorten the length of binary so humans can better understand it.
ASCII vs Unicode
ASCII is a small system code system used to represent 128 characters. It is limited because it can only represent 128 English characters. Unicode is a much larger system that can represent millions of characters from nearly all languages.