Convert binary to ASCII and vice versa

Question

Using this code to take a string and convert it to binary:

bin(reduce(lambda x, y: 256*x+y, (ord(c) for c in \'hello\'), 0))

this outputs:<

Answer 1

Are you looking for the code to do it or understanding the algorithm?

Does this do what you need? Specifically a2b_uu and b2a_uu? There are LOTS of other options in there in case those aren't what you want.

(NOTE: Not a Python guy but this seemed like an obvious answer)