fast-text-encoding

What is fast-text-encoding?

The fast-text-encoding npm package is a polyfill for the TextEncoder and TextDecoder APIs, which are part of the Encoding Living Standard. These APIs provide a straightforward way to encode and decode text using various character encodings, primarily UTF-8. This package is particularly useful in environments where the native TextEncoder and TextDecoder are not available, such as older browsers or specific Node.js versions.

What are fast-text-encoding's main functionalities?

Text Encoding

This feature allows you to encode a JavaScript string into a Uint8Array of bytes using UTF-8 encoding. It's useful for preparing text data for transmission or storage in binary formats.

const textEncoder = new TextEncoder();
const encoded = textEncoder.encode('Hello, World!');
console.log(encoded);

Text Decoding

This feature enables you to decode a Uint8Array of bytes into a JavaScript string using UTF-8 or other supported encodings. It's commonly used for reading text data received in binary format.

const textDecoder = new TextDecoder();
const decoded = textDecoder.decode(new Uint8Array([72, 101, 108, 108, 111]));
console.log(decoded);

Other packages similar to fast-text-encoding

text-encoding

The text-encoding package is another polyfill for the TextEncoder and TextDecoder APIs, similar to fast-text-encoding. It supports a wider range of encodings beyond UTF-8, making it more versatile for applications that need to work with different character sets. However, it might be larger in size and potentially slower than fast-text-encoding, which focuses on speed and efficiency for UTF-8 encoding.

buffer

While not a direct polyfill for TextEncoder and TextDecoder, the buffer package in Node.js provides similar functionalities for encoding and decoding text in various character encodings. It's more integrated into the Node.js ecosystem and offers a broader set of features for manipulating binary data, but it might be more complex to use for simple text encoding/decoding tasks compared to fast-text-encoding.

README

This is an intentionally empty package in case you don't need fast-text-encoding.