od -t b?

[Daniel Janus]

Hello,

I've just tried to use od to dump a file in base 2, that is, as a sequence 
of ones and zeroes, and after consulting the documentation, noticed that 
there was no such option.

My question: is it just an overlooking, or is the lack of this feature 
deliberate? If it's not, would the users find the '-t b' option useful? (I 
surely would, and it looks like I'm not the only one: Googling for 'od 
binary' yields a five-year-old message to bug-gnu-utils, 
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/2000-12/msg00147.html --
apparently unanswered.)

And finally, what issues, if any, should I be aware of if I wanted to 
contribute to coreutils by adding such an option? I have quite strong C 
experience, but never hacked on GNU source.

Sincerely,
Daniel Janus