Xmodem and TFTP are pretty close to archetypical binary protocols. They have suffered the same problems with sloppy implementations gaining prominence, then everyone has to account for the sloppiness forever after.
IMO, the problem those had is that they're too simple. XMODEM in particular was basically "send part number, then 128-byte blob". Not to mention the CP/M-ism of <EOT>. It has no room for extensibility, and its usage is very restrictive, so everyone shoves their ideas into it. Including replacing <EOT> with something else.
Comments
Xmodem and TFTP are pretty close to archetypical binary protocols. They have suffered the same problems with sloppy implementations gaining prominence, then everyone has to account for the sloppiness forever after.
IMO, the problem those had is that they're too simple. XMODEM in particular was basically "send part number, then 128-byte blob". Not to mention the CP/M-ism of <EOT>. It has no room for extensibility, and its usage is very restrictive, so everyone shoves their ideas into it. Including replacing <EOT> with something else.