feat(utils): add binary reader and recorder for encoded states

[domire8]

Description

In this PR I'm adding utilities to write and read recorded files that contain encoded states along with the timestamp of when the data was recorded.

Review guidelines

Estimated Time of Review: 5 minutes

Checklist before merging:

• Confirm that the relevant changelog(s) are up-to-date in case of any user-facing changes

[bpapaspyros]

Overall looks good, just a small question

[domire8]

What about the filename / names?

• io is not the most elegant way of naming a file
• One function is called read_binary_file but then the other two just read_directory..That's also slightly weird no?

[bpapaspyros]

What about the filename / names?

• io is not the most elegant way of naming a file

I don't mind too much (it is accurate enough). We could do rw for read/write instead, but that hardly changes much.

• One function is called read_binary_file but then the other two just read_directory..That's also slightly weird no?

Yes, you are right, although if hadn't mentioned it I wouldn't have really thought much about it. Could we do perhaps read_binary_from_directory or something with the word recurse in it? The read_directories could then be recursive_read_binary_from_directories. Those are also not the greatest of names, but perhaps there is something to think about

[eeberhard]

Functionality is good, but I think if we are writing encoded state to file as encoded binary representation, then specifically calling them encoded state recordings would be most correct. I would then also call the whole module encoded_state_recorder, as binary_io is just a bit vague.

[eeberhard]

I like it like this!