Let us see the benefits of using plain text.
Insurance against obsolescence
Human readable data will always last longer than other forms of data. The plain text formats, used in legacy systems, can be parsed to get the required information at any point of time even if you have little knowledge about the original application. As long as the data is alive, you’ll be able to use it.
Consider a legacy system which was used to store the social security numbers of the employees in a particular firm. If the system was using plain text, it is easier to identify the SSNs while seeing this:
<FIELD10>123-45-6789</FIELD10>
It is far more readable than something like this:
AC27123456789B11P
In the first case, it is not at all difficult to write a script to get all the social security numbers if you know the format of SSN.
Leverage
Almost all tools can operate on plain text, from source code management systems to compiler environments to editors and stand-alone filters. This makes it easier keep the history of changes. File comparison tools such as diff and fc allow you to see at a glance what changes have been made.
Easier testing
If you use plain text to create synthetic data to drive system tests, then it is a simple matter to add, update, or modify the test data without having to create any special tools to do so.
- summary of The Power of Plain Text, from The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
Insurance against obsolescence
Human readable data will always last longer than other forms of data. The plain text formats, used in legacy systems, can be parsed to get the required information at any point of time even if you have little knowledge about the original application. As long as the data is alive, you’ll be able to use it.
Consider a legacy system which was used to store the social security numbers of the employees in a particular firm. If the system was using plain text, it is easier to identify the SSNs while seeing this:
<FIELD10>123-45-6789</FIELD10>
It is far more readable than something like this:
AC27123456789B11P
In the first case, it is not at all difficult to write a script to get all the social security numbers if you know the format of SSN.
Leverage
Almost all tools can operate on plain text, from source code management systems to compiler environments to editors and stand-alone filters. This makes it easier keep the history of changes. File comparison tools such as diff and fc allow you to see at a glance what changes have been made.
Easier testing
If you use plain text to create synthetic data to drive system tests, then it is a simple matter to add, update, or modify the test data without having to create any special tools to do so.
- summary of The Power of Plain Text, from The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
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