Newbie - converting binary data to ASCII text ?

[Cyr]

hello,

I'm completely new to python and I've got problem reading binary data file.
When I read a file with read(), the binary data aren't converted. In fact,
I'd like to know if there's a method for converting a file object (or a
string) from binary to the equivalent ASCII text. The data aren't written in
a particular format. Fortran doesn't have any problem with theese files

I'would greetly appreciate any help, thanks

Cyril D

PS : I'm working on an SGI Irix operating system