The content of this library is outside the scope of this introductory course. So, we will just mention that this library provides support for Base64, Base32, Binary, and Hexadecimal String encoding and decoding.
The encoding is necessary to make sure that the data you sent across different systems will not be changed on the way, due to the restrictions on the range of characters in different protocols. Besides, some systems interpret the sent data as control characters (a modem, for example).