1 files changed, 48 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/encoding/encoding.go b/src/encoding/encoding.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6d218071b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/encoding/encoding.go
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+// Copyright 2013 The Go Authors.  All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+// Package encoding defines interfaces shared by other packages that
+// convert data to and from byte-level and textual representations.
+// Packages that check for these interfaces include encoding/gob,
+// encoding/json, and encoding/xml. As a result, implementing an
+// interface once can make a type useful in multiple encodings.
+// Standard types that implement these interfaces include time.Time and net.IP.
+// The interfaces come in pairs that produce and consume encoded data.
+package encoding
+
+// BinaryMarshaler is the interface implemented by an object that can
+// marshal itself into a binary form.
+//
+// MarshalBinary encodes the receiver into a binary form and returns the result.
+type BinaryMarshaler interface {
+	MarshalBinary() (data []byte, err error)
+}
+
+// BinaryUnmarshaler is the interface implemented by an object that can
+// unmarshal a binary representation of itself.
+//
+// UnmarshalBinary must be able to decode the form generated by MarshalBinary.
+// UnmarshalBinary must copy the data if it wishes to retain the data
+// after returning.
+type BinaryUnmarshaler interface {
+	UnmarshalBinary(data []byte) error
+}
+
+// TextMarshaler is the interface implemented by an object that can
+// marshal itself into a textual form.
+//
+// MarshalText encodes the receiver into UTF-8-encoded text and returns the result.
+type TextMarshaler interface {
+	MarshalText() (text []byte, err error)
+}
+
+// TextUnmarshaler is the interface implemented by an object that can
+// unmarshal a textual representation of itself.
+//
+// UnmarshalText must be able to decode the form generated by MarshalText.
+// UnmarshalText must copy the text if it wishes to retain the text
+// after returning.
+type TextUnmarshaler interface {
+	UnmarshalText(text []byte) error
+}