Using text streams between piped-together processes is not a requirement though. I'm using binary streams for some of the stuff I do, as I write simulators for

Using text streams between piped-together processes is not a requirement though. I'm using binary streams for some of the stuff I do, as I write simulators for some hardware (and other things) which gets processed by something else through a pipe or two (and may end up being parsed into text at or near the final point).