question: public byte [ ] readBytes ( ) throws IOException { if ( ! parseTag ( ) ) throw new BurlapProtocolException ( "expected <base64>" ) ; String tag = sbuf . toString ( ) ; if ( tag . equals ( "null" ) ) { expectEndTag ( "null" ) ; return null ; } else if ( tag . equals ( "base64" ) ) { sbuf . setLength ( 0 ) ; byte [ ] value = parseBytes ( ) ; expectEndTag ( "base64" ) ; return value ; } else throw expectBeginTag ( "base64" , tag ) ; }
target:  Reads a byte array from the input stream. <p>The two valid possibilities are either a &lt;null> or a &lt;base64>.