Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: UUencode vs. XXencode (was: Automated extraction of c.p.i.b...)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 90 05:19:13 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Jul30.051913.23352@looking.on.ca>
References: <34590@ut-emx.UUCP> <37392@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <34630@ut-emx.UUCP>

I just threw in XXENCODE mode into ABE/DABE.  Which means that ABE can
produce xxencode type files with the ABE extra information, and DABE
can decode them, or an xxdecoder can decode them.

Note that in my surveys, the following bytes were the ones that people
reported trouble with in EBCDIC translations.  ABE2 avoids these
as well:

	! ` [ \ ] ^ { | } ~

Note that "!" is in the set because of a bug in "dd" on some UNIX
machines, and some ebcdic translation out there is being done by dd.

Space and DEL are also in the no-no set, although space is usually
preserved these days, you can't count on leading and trailing space
in some systems.

Most UUENCODES used to use space for 0, but they found such troubles
and switched to grave (`), but that also has troubles in some areas.

Currently ABE supports ABE1 (94 printables, not safe over EBCDIC links
but the most compact) ABE2 (safe over EBCDIC), UUENCODE and XXENCODE.

I am thinking of adding a "text" mode that would be good for source
groups.  Next batch of spare time :-)
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473