NAME

       Convert::Ascii85 - Encoding and decoding of ascii85/base85 strings

SYNOPSIS

        use Convert::Ascii85;

        my $encoded = Convert::Ascii85::encode($data);
        my $decoded = Convert::Ascii85::decode($encoded);

        use Convert::Ascii85 qw(ascii85_encode ascii85_decode);

        my $encoded = ascii85_encode($data);
        my $decoded = ascii85_decode($encoded);

DESCRIPTION

       This module implements the Ascii85 (also known as Base85) algorithm for encoding binary
       data as text. This is done by interpreting each group of four bytes as a 32-bit integer,
       which is then converted to a five-digit base-85 representation using the digits from ASCII
       33 ("!") to 117 ("u").

       This is similar to MIME::Base64 but more space efficient: The overhead is only 1/4 of the
       original data (as opposed to 1/3 for Base64).

FUNCTIONS

       Convert::Ascii85::encode DATA
       Convert::Ascii85::encode DATA, OPTIONS
           Converts the bytes in DATA to Ascii85 and returns the resulting text string.  OPTIONS
           is a hash reference in which the following keys may be set:

           compress_zero => 0
               By default, four-byte chunks of null bytes ("\0\0\0\0") are converted to 'z'
               instead of '!!!!!'. This can be avoided by passing a false value for
               "compress_zero" in OPTIONS.

           compress_space => 1
               By default, four-byte chunks of spaces ('    ') are converted to '+<VdL'.  If you
               pass a true value for "compress_space" in OPTIONS, they will be converted to 'y'
               instead.

           This function may be exported as "ascii85_encode" into the caller's namespace.

       Convert::Ascii85::decode TEXT
           Converts the Ascii85-encoded TEXT back to bytes and returns the resulting byte string.
           Spaces and linebreaks in TEXT are ignored.

           This function may be exported as "ascii85_decode" into the caller's namespace.

SEE ALSO

       <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascii85>, MIME::Base64

AUTHOR

       Lukas Mai, "<l.mai at web.de>"

BUGS

       Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-convert-ascii85 at rt.cpan.org", or
       through the web interface at
       <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Convert-Ascii85>.  I will be notified, and
       then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

       You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

           perldoc Convert::Ascii85

       You can also look for information at:

       •   RT: CPAN's request tracker

           <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Convert-Ascii85>

       •   AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation

           <http://annocpan.org/dist/Convert-Ascii85>

       •   CPAN Ratings

           <http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Convert-Ascii85>

       •   Search CPAN

           <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Convert-Ascii85/>

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2011 Lukas Mai.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
       either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
       the Artistic License.

       See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.