Why should I use a human readable file format?

Question

Why should I use a human readable file format in preference to a binary one? Is there ever a situation when this isn\'t the case?

EDIT: I did have this as an explana

Answer 1

• Open format -- no binary bit juggling
• Readability :)
• Interchange across platforms
• Debugging aid
• Easily parsed (and easily converted to any format)

One important point: you write a parser once, but read the output many times. That kind of tilts the balance in favor of HRF.