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From: jimb@silvlis.com (Jim Budler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: New StuffIt translator modules
Message-ID: <1991Jan21.045022.9593@silvlis.com>
Date: 21 Jan 91 04:50:22 GMT
References: <42005@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Sender: usenet@silvlis.com (USENET news maint)
Organization: Silvar-Lisco, Inc.
Lines: 54

In article <42005@nigel.ee.udel.edu> johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu writes:
>In article <1991Jan17.171813.19497@comp.vuw.ac.nz>, marder@rata.vuw.ac.nz 
>(Stephen Marder) writes...
[...]
>MacBinary == BinHex 5.0 format.  It does not support encoding/decoding
>multipart files.  However, Binhex 5.0 format is not "hqx" format.
>The files created with the MacBinary encoder are given the default file
>name extension "mbin".  Frankly, I don't know what BinHex 5.0 is used for.

BinHex 5.0 is the program that introduced MacBinary. Back in the dark ages
of Macintosh telecommunications, a man named Yves Lempereur developed
BinHex 1,2,3,4 and 5. He is a principal of Mainstay and gave these
programs to the world. Usenet, having mail links that cannot transfer
8 bit data chose to remain at the BinHex 4.0 level.

For those who care about the history, BinHex 1 encoded the three parts
of a Macintosh file in ASCII, similar to uuencode. (three parts = data,
rsrc, and info).

BinHex 2,3 and 4 added better binary to ASCII maps, and some forms
of data compresssion.

BinHex 5.0 abandoned any attempt at binary to ASCII encoding because
it was no longer needed on the commercial networks. Yves proposed it
as a standard, and it was accepted by a committee composed of sysops
from several networks and terminal program vendors.

This became MacBinary. Later it became MacBinary I, when a similar
committee voted on a downward compatible extension called MacBinary II.
New capability was mainly the addition of the new Finder flags in the
header introduced with MultiFinder.

Back to the original statement:

	"Frankly, I don't know what BinHex 5.0 is used for."

Frankly, I'd be surprised if it's used for anything. Most modern
terminal emulators on the Mac provide the function. Most provide
the newer MacBinary II.

However, don't count it out totally. If you used something like
'mcvert' to create MacBinary files on your Usenet host, downloaded them
to a PC, carried them by floppy or something to your Mac, MacBinary 5.0
could decode them, only losing some of the newer Finder flags like
'MultiFinder Aware'.

>-- Bill (johnston@oscar.ccm.udel.edu)

jim
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