> One of the "building blocks" added to  the next version of LISTSERV is an
> internal command  called X-B64 which a  future version could use  to pass
> binary DISTRIBUTE jobs over mail gateways.  Before you ask, I haven't got
 
Is the output of this program compatible with the base64 encoding
used in the MIME multimedia extensions package for Internet mail?
If not, I'd suggest taking a look at it -- MIME is becoming more
and more popular, and the base64 encoding type is flexible enough
to be a very useful tool without inventing Yet Another File
Encoding Program.
 
As a futures thing, is LISTSERV support for MIME in the works?
It'd really be neat to have the ability to have my mail reader be
able to receive files and text messages in the same message and
not have to worry about figuring out what utility I need to
receive/decode/assemble various kinds of files. From a trivial
look at what would be required, the list of headers passed
through the header filter for short headers would have to be
expanded to pass the X-MIME-Version header and the loop detector
code would probably have to be able to ignore MIME element
headers in the body of the message.
 
One of the PIPES-phreaks here has written a replacement for
SENDFILE that employs MIME to encapsulate files that might be
interesting to look at. We've successfully used it to move some
pretty large text files around -- it might be an interesting base
to work from.