Introduction
The
Internet was initially designed to transfer information from computer
to computer via ASCII characters, basic text and numerals. As the
Internet grew and became a more widely used medium for sending files
back and forth such as graphics, audio, and video, methods had to be
developed to convert these file types for Internet travel. Two of the
most common methods of encoding and decoding these file types are MIME
and uuencode:
- uuencode/decode - A universal protocol used to transfer files between different platforms such as UNIX, Windows, and Macs.
- MIME - Another specification for formatting non-ASCII messages so they can be sent over the Internet.
- BinHex - An older encoding/decoding mechanism used mostly by older Macs.
uuencode
Now a universal protocol for transferring files, uuencode was coined from Unix-to-Unix encode.
Now uuencode is used across all platforms in networks and the Internet.
This utility is a set of algorithms that converts files into a series
of 7-bit ASCII characters from its binary or bit-stream representation.
Text can be handled by older systems that may not be able to handle
binary files well and larger files can be more easily divided into
multi-part transmissions. MIME
MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.
This is also a specification for formatting non-ASCII messages so they
can be sent via the Internet. Email clients that support the MIME
format are able to send and receive such non-text files such as
graphics, audio, and video very much the same way uuencode does. To
insure that email with images or other non-ASCII files will be
delivered without corruption, MIME is used to encode the non-text
information as text. This is known as base64. BinHex
BinHex
is used mostly by older Mac computers and is not compatible with most
other systems. Most Macs can still decode BinHex files but Mac users
should be aware that they may be sending files to a non-Mac user and
thus should probably make sure their email preferences are set to MIME
or uuencode. Summary
Transferring non-text files over the Internet may seem like an
easy task, but you must make sure whatever is sent will be received
in usable form. Many older systems will need special encoding and
decoding utilities. Luckily most modern email programs support MIME
and uuencode methods for sending attachments. If you're using an
older Mac system, make sure you aren't using BinHex because the
UNIX or Windows system your message is travelling on or being received
on won't be able to decode it into its original form. |
