README.md

Baudot – A 5-bit Stateful Codec Python Library

baudot is a Python 3 library for reading and writing 5-bit stateful encoding.

This library is named after Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot (1845-1903), the French engineer who invented this code. The Baudot code was the first practical binary character encoding, and is an ancestor of the ASCII code we are familiar with today.

Examples

Encoding example

from io import StringIO
from baudot import encode_str, codecs, handlers

input_str = 'HELLO WORLD!'
with StringIO() as output_buffer:
    writer = handlers.TapeWriter(output_buffer)
    encode_str(input_str, codecs.ITA2_STANDARD, writer)
    print(output_buffer.getvalue())

This would output the following:

***.**
* *.
   . *
*  .*
*  .*
** .
  *.
*  .**
** .
 * .*
*  .*
 * . *
** .**
 **. *

Decoding example

from io import BytesIO
from baudot import decode_to_str, codecs, handlers

code = b'1f14011212180413180a12091b0d'
with BytesIO(code) as code_stream:
    reader = handlers.HexBytesReader(code_stream)
    print(decode_to_str(reader, codecs.ITA2_US))

Should print:

HELLO WORLD!

Installation

Pip is the simplest way to install Baudot:

pip install baudot

This library works with Python 3.7 and up. It does not have any external requirement.

Docs

Documentation is available at: https://python-baudot.readthedocs.io/