Human-readable
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The term "human-readable" refers to a representation of data that can be naturally read by humans. In most contexts, the alternative representation is a machine-readable format or medium of data primarily designed for reading by electronic, mechanical or optical devices, or computers. For example, UPC barcodes are very difficult to read for humans, but very effective and reliable with the proper equipment, whereas the strings of numerals that commonly accompany the label are the human-readable form of the barcode's data. In many jurisdictions, barcode labels used in retail shopping must also include a human-readable price on the merchandise.
In computing, the phrase human-readable refers to data shown in a format easily read by most humans—normally encoded as ASCII or Unicode text, rather than binary data. Virtually all data can be parsed by a suitably equipped and programmed computer; reasons for choosing binary formats over text formats usually center on issues of storage space, as a binary representation usually takes up fewer bytes of storage, and efficiency of input and output without parsing or conversion.
With the advent of standardized, highly structured markup languages, such as XML, and the decreasing costs of data storage, as well as faster and cheaper data communication networks, compromises between human-readability and machine-readability are now more common-place than they were in the past. In addition, these structured representations can be compressed very effectively for transmission or storage.
[edit] See also
- Machine-readable - data representation intended for automated equipment.
