Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!quads.uchicago.edu!jcav From: jcav@quads.uchicago.edu (john cavallino) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Really detailed Binhex format info ?? Message-ID: <1991Apr4.181537.27365@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 4 Apr 91 18:15:37 GMT References: <1991Apr04.114105.6198@dit.upm.es> Sender: bcareful@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago Lines: 37 In article <1991Apr04.114105.6198@dit.upm.es> esink@turia.dit.upm.es () writes: > >The following is copied from file-formats.txt, which I obtained from >sumex (I have retained only some sections of her paper): > >---------- >Date: Tue, 22 Jan 91 17:08 CDT >From: "Sande Nissen (CompuCtr, SoftServ)" > >After several days of intensive detective work, I have come to a point where >I believe I can explain the BinHex/MacBinary/.hqx confusion. Some of the >earliest information may be incorrect because the truth is lost in the clouds >of ancient Machistory. > >Yves Lempereur, a programmer for Mainstay, specified an "Hqx7" >encoding scheme and developed the free program BinHex version 4, which uses a >filename extension of ".Hqx". Thus the first standard was born. The Hqx7 >protocol not only pastes together the data and resource forks of a file, it >also converts the 8-bit ASCII into a 7-bit format that can be transferred >(and even mailed) across all networks. Because of the widespread use of >Lempereur's free utility, this Hqx7 protocol is sometimes called "binhex" >encoding. If you think about it, it's obvious that BinHex 4 was not the first version of BinHex. There were in fact at least two earlier versions (and one subsequent version) of BinHex. Those of us who remember looking at sumex in the very early days (ca. 1985), there used to be files with extensions '.hex' and '.hcx'. These files were created by those earlier versions of BinHex. I believe that BinHex 4 can decode these earlier formats, should there still be a need. Anybody remember .pit files?... (floating off into a haze of nostalgia) -- John Cavallino | EMail: jcav@midway.uchicago.edu University of Chicago Hospitals | USMail: 5841 S. Maryland Ave, Box 145 Office of Facilities Management | Chicago, IL 60637 "Opinions, my boy. Just opinions" | Telephone: 312-702-6900