Base 64 is a way of representing any data as text. The idea is simple:

1) All data is binary, so treat it as bits

2) Writing out each bit individually would be incredibly inefficient, so group them into sextuplets (6-bit numbers)

3) Grouping 6 bits gives one "digit" in base 64

4) Choose some arbitrary symbols to represent all 64 possibilities. For example, in hexadecimal we use "ABCDEF" as the extra symbols

5) Since most data comes in 8-bit bytes, there may be 2 or 4 bits left over at the end. Just multiply by 10 or 100 to make 6 bits

6) Write out your base 64 number, using your chosen symbols

7) If you multiplied by 10 in step 5, put another (arbitrary) symbol at the end

8) If you multiplied by 100 in step 5, put 2 such symbols at the end

The symbols are indeed arbitrary, but a standardised set is used in the base 64 standards (in the same way that we standardise on "0123456789" in decimal).
This simple library provides a "Base64" object with "encode" and "decode" functions. It's Public Domain, because I was so annoyed that I couldn't find
such an obvious and useful bit of code under a permissive-enough license.

Contributions are welcome. Note that I value simplicity over efficiency, so I may choose not to include patches that just increase the speed while making
it harder to understand. With that said, the simplicity is already compromised a bit since I opted to make the encode/decode functions use a single pass
(otherwise the RAM usage would be unacceptable). You're completely free to fork the code if you want to though.

- Chris Warburton