Binary strings still have their uses. Don't let huge warning of Node.js stop you from using them. There are valid reasons to use binary strings instead of low-level Buffers. Who cares about performance? If we would care so much, we all would write in assembly :-).

This module will try to use Node.js binary strings if you are using version create before their removal (while destroying all warnings about them). If your Node.js version doesn't have binary strings, they are emulated which makes them even slower (but well, you have them, and if you care about performance, write in assembly).

Unlike Buffers, you can do anything you can with normal strings on binary strings (internally, they are normal strings). You can use regular expressions, you can compare them, you can use string methods on them, you can use them as object keys. The only disadvantage is that you cannot easily change single characters (this is probably only real advantage of Buffers).

var binaryString = require('binary-string'),
    // Converts buffer to binary string
    fromBuffer   = binaryString.fromBuffer,
    // Converts binary string to buffer
    toBuffer     = binaryString.toBuffer