Re: libcodecs(3), take 4

[der Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

> osx-vm1: {2} awk '{ print $2 }' .ssh/id_rsa.pub | codecs atob | codecs hexdump

> I see no easy way we have of doing that otherwise right now.

Well, I'd use "... | base64 | hexdump -C".  (OpenSSH identities use
base64 encoding, not btoa/atob encoding; using the name "atob" to mean
base64 will only confuse people who are familiar with the real base64
and btoa/atob - which latter is a base-85 encoding with a couple of
tweaks.)  Admittedly, base64 comes from /local rather than the base
system, but so what?  Putting a base64 command-line tool into base is a
mostly orthogonal issue.  For command-line use I prefer separate
programs rather than an omnibus executable with a selector argument
anyway; "make each tool do one thing well".  If nothing else, this
makes encoding-specific options easier to deal with.  I see libcodec's
benefit as being programmatic use, not command-line use.

As for hexdump, I would be pretty ticked if hexdump were "replaced"
with something that didn't support all of hexdump's power; I specify
formats on the command line semi-regularly.

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