<s>
In	O
computing	O
,	O
a	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
medium	I-General_Concept
or	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
format	I-General_Concept
is	O
any	O
encoding	O
of	O
data	O
or	O
information	O
that	O
can	O
be	O
naturally	O
read	O
by	O
humans	O
,	O
resulting	O
in	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
often	O
encoded	O
as	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
or	O
Unicode	O
text	O
,	O
rather	O
than	O
as	O
binary	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
most	O
contexts	O
,	O
the	O
alternative	O
to	O
a	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
representation	O
is	O
a	O
machine-readable	O
format	O
or	O
medium	B-General_Concept
of	O
data	O
primarily	O
designed	O
for	O
reading	O
by	O
electronic	O
,	O
mechanical	O
or	O
optical	O
devices	O
,	O
or	O
computers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
Universal	O
Product	O
Code	O
(	O
UPC	O
)	O
barcodes	O
are	O
very	O
difficult	O
to	O
read	O
for	O
humans	O
,	O
but	O
very	O
effective	O
and	O
reliable	O
with	O
the	O
proper	O
equipment	O
,	O
whereas	O
the	O
strings	O
of	O
numerals	O
that	O
commonly	O
accompany	O
the	O
label	O
are	O
the	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
form	O
of	O
the	O
barcode	O
information	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
any	O
type	O
of	O
data	O
encoding	O
can	O
be	O
parsed	B-Language
by	O
a	O
suitably	O
programmed	O
computer	O
,	O
the	O
decision	O
to	O
use	O
binary	O
encoding	O
rather	O
than	O
text	O
encoding	O
is	O
usually	O
made	O
to	O
conserve	O
storage	O
space	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Encoding	O
data	O
in	O
a	O
binary	O
format	O
typically	O
requires	O
fewer	O
bytes	B-Application
of	O
storage	O
and	O
increases	O
efficiency	O
of	O
access	O
(	O
input	O
and	O
output	O
)	O
by	O
eliminating	O
format	O
parsing	B-Language
or	O
conversion	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
the	O
advent	O
of	O
standardized	O
,	O
highly	O
structured	O
markup	O
languages	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Extensible	B-Protocol
Markup	I-Protocol
Language	I-Protocol
(	O
XML	B-Protocol
)	O
,	O
the	O
decreasing	O
costs	O
of	O
data	O
storage	O
,	O
and	O
faster	O
and	O
cheaper	O
data	O
communication	O
networks	O
,	O
compromises	O
between	O
human-readability	O
and	O
machine-readability	O
are	O
now	O
more	O
common-place	O
than	O
they	O
were	O
in	O
the	O
past	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
has	O
led	O
to	O
humane	B-Protocol
markup	I-Protocol
languages	I-Protocol
and	O
modern	O
configuration	B-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
formats	O
that	O
are	O
far	O
easier	O
for	O
humans	O
to	O
read	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
addition	O
,	O
these	O
structured	O
representations	O
can	O
be	O
compressed	B-General_Concept
very	O
effectively	O
for	O
transmission	O
or	O
storage	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Human-readable	B-General_Concept
protocols	O
greatly	O
reduce	O
the	O
cost	O
of	O
debugging	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Various	O
organizations	O
have	O
standardized	O
the	O
definition	O
of	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
and	O
machine-readable	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
and	O
how	O
they	O
are	O
applied	O
in	O
their	O
respective	O
fields	O
of	O
application	O
,	O
e.g.	O
,	O
the	O
Universal	O
Postal	O
Union	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Often	O
the	O
term	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
is	O
also	O
used	O
to	O
describe	O
shorter	O
names	O
or	O
strings	O
,	O
that	O
are	O
easier	O
to	O
comprehend	O
or	O
to	O
remember	O
than	O
long	O
,	O
complex	O
syntax	O
notations	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
some	O
Uniform	O
Resource	O
Locator	O
strings	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Occasionally	O
"	O
human-readable	B-General_Concept
"	O
is	O
used	O
to	O
describe	O
ways	O
of	O
encoding	O
an	O
arbitrary	O
integer	O
into	O
a	O
long	O
series	O
of	O
English	O
words	O
.	O
</s>
