🚀 go-pugleaf

Both Octets and Bit Strings have two differents uses -- neither ``uncommon''.

Bit Strings will either:
* include a limited set of named configuration flags -- could be in
most cases mapped to (some of) the 32 bits of an Integer by a typical C program;
* be used to carry a bitmap: anything from a smallish icone to a full
screen, not excluding fac-simile images.

Octet Strings have much of the same split. They can either encode:
* some attribute, like name or password, which usually fits on a single line;
* a full ``file'', or ``document'', or whatever. That not only for
X.400, but also for FTAM + all document related applications.

The other problem is the split between ``primitive'' and ``structured''
encodings. As far as I can tell, you find anything, the key being the
ability of the sender to predict the size of the string; when it is
predictable (e.g. binary file), the primitive encoding is often
preferred. Several systems code text files in the structured format,
for you have to do a lot of clean up at the end of lines => the final
length is hard to predict.

Christian Huitema