Why :error when data is not binary?

[nelsonic]

At present when the value to be encoded is not a binary, we return an :error:
https://github.com/dwyl/exbase58/blob/c56a72407fa6f8b09423d9461206fafec68bc809/lib/base58encode.ex#L32-L33

Why? 🤷

[nelsonic]

We don't need throw :error if it's not a requirement. 💭
We can simply convert any value (Number, Atom, etc.) to Binary before encoding:

 def encode(anything) do
   :erlang.term_to_binary(anything)
   |> encode()
 end

see: https://elixirforum.com/t/erlang-term-to-binary-and-vice-versa-in-elixir/11034/3

[nelsonic]

I need to encode Integer values for dwyl/auth#49 so I've added the code and tests to #17

[nelsonic]

The code is backwards compatible provided people weren't counting on getting an :error.
Closing. ✅