On Mon, 28 Sep 1992 00:46:29 CDT "(David E Boyes)" <[log in to unmask]> said: >Is the output of this program compatible with the base64 encoding used >in the MIME multimedia extensions package for Internet mail? There does not exist such a thing as a MIME file transfer encoding. What MIME describes is a base64 encoding system which translates a stream of binary characters into a stream of printable characters that survive gateways, and LB64/LISTSERV use exactly that encoding (so that the code can be reused to provide support for outgoing MIME mail at a later date). But MIME falls short of describing the *contents* of this stream of binaries in enough details to be usable for what I have to do. It hints at the fact that one should not forget to encode the CRLF's when using base64, but what if I want to transfer binary data? What if I am using EBCDIC? >As a futures thing, is LISTSERV support for MIME in the works? I haven't yet figured out exactly how it can be used (beyond replacing UUENCODE et al). MIME does not seem to be a working replacement for FTP or the various BITNET file formats. The only thing that is clear is that a file (I mean a "real" file, with binaries and non-default file system parameter requirements) is to be sent as "Content-Type: application/octet-stream". Yeah, and you still need the good old BITNET style file formatter to encode and decode the thing, I'm sorry but I don't call that progress. >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. You mean RECEIVE actually asks you what format the file is in before receiving it, and you didn't report the bug to IBM? :-) >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. You said it - text files. Not indexed word processor dictionary files. MIME supports "files" in the unix/PC sense only - stream of bytes. Eric