I asked about this once on comp.lang.perl.tk and Steven Lidie replied

"The reason is described in various pieces of documentation. Tcl/Tk required (still requires?) data in "printable characters", hence the encoding of binary data.".

I never thought about it, and just took it as one of those truths you just accept and never question. :-)

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

In reply to Re^3: Tk:Photo -data with binary data? by zentara
in thread Tk:Photo -data with binary data? by BrowserUk

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