Right, so the question isn't 'text vs. binary', it's
'length-prefaced strings' vs. 'delimited strings', and
if length-prefaced, whether it is ascii-decimal-length or binary-length
and if delimited, whether it's
escaped delimiters or encoded delimiters
The argument against length-prefaced is that there might
be some errors if some of the characters might be accidentally
transformed (e.g., space & tab, CR & LF & CRLF).
The argument against delimited strings is that it takes
more time to scan or parse. (You have to parse if the
delimiters are escaped when not used as a delimiter, and
scan and decode if the delimiters are encoded.)
HTTP is mainly delimited (by CRLF) and escaped (for comment
strings) but sometimes encoded (e.g., in URLs).
Larry