Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 17:14:58 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
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To: Bruno Haible <haible AT ilog DOT fr>
cc: ST001906 AT HRZ1 DOT HRZ DOT TU-Darmstadt DOT De, djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: DJGPP specific patch for libiconv-1.5.1
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On Mon, 26 Feb 2001, Bruno Haible wrote:

> > Why is the --binary option needed?  Why cannot the files be always
> > read and written in binary mode?
> 
> 1) Because iconv deals with text. Text files are opened with "r", not
> "rb".
> 
> 2) Because when reading from stdin or writing to stdout, special work
> is needed to get that file into binary mode. It should not be the
> default.

Sorry, I'm probably missing something: if iconv deals with text files, 
why is the --binary option needed at all?  In other words, under what 
circumstances is the user expected to use --binary?