Ferhat: No, gateways have a tendancy to corrupt the binary files - such
files need to be encoded with a special method which reduces the
binary range of these files (so that for example, instead of using ASCII
0->255, it uses only '0'->'F', like the HEX option)..
 
UUENCODE does this, it 'stretches' each 3-byte piece into four, and
XXENCODE is similar, except XXENCODE uses another character set which
is at some newer implementations, is given up front - so that even if
all the (let's say) '@' characters in the file get changed to something
else, the receiving side can figure this out from the 'ruler' on top
of the file.. HEX is more brute-force, and results in a larger file,
and it turns each byte into two hex bytes.. (Encoders for VM are
available from LISTSERV@TREARN, decoders from TRICKLE@TREARN!)
Regards, -turgut