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From: tdn@K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Thomas Newton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: BinHex 4.0 or 5.0?
Message-ID: <379@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
Date: Sat, 21-Nov-87 12:01:58 EST
Article-I.D.: PT.379
Posted: Sat Nov 21 12:01:58 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Nov-87 04:05:34 EST
References: <790@redwood.UUCP>
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Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 35
Keywords: binhex

In article <790@redwood.UUCP> jamespa@redwood.UUCP (James Paul) writes:
>I've seen several messages asking about BinHex 4.0 and asking where to
>get it. I must be missing the replies, and I have no idea where to get
>BinHex 4.0. Is this an application on the Mac, or a UNIX implementation?

BinHex is a Macintosh application that has gone through several versions.  The
ones I can remember offhand are:

  Obsolete versions of BinHex (all free):
    BinHex3.BAS    formats produced:  .HEX         decoded:  .HEX
    BinHex 2.0     formats produced:  .HCX, .HEX   decoded:  .HCX, .HEX
    BinHex 2.1     formats produced:  .HCX, .HEX   decoded:  .HCX, .HEX
    (no stand-alone version 3.0 to avoid confusion with MS-BASIC BinHex)

  Current versions of BinHex:
    BinHex 4.0     formats produced:  .HQX         decoded:  .HQX, .HCX, .HEX
		   Free; remains the best alternative for encoding Mac binary
		   files to be posted to USENET or archived on ARPANET (there
		   are many types of computers on ARPANET and I believe news/
		   mail links on USENET are only intended to pass ASCII text)

    BinHex 5.0     formats produced:  MacBinary I  decoded:  MacBinary I plus
    							     .HQX, .HCX, .HEX
		   Shareware; useful for sending MacBinary files to a service
		   that uses them (Compuserve, GEnie, etc.) in the event that
		   your terminal emulator does not support MacBinary directly.
		   Since practically every Macintosh terminal emulator around
		   with the exception of MacKermit can produce and decode the
		   MacBinary format on-the-fly and since BinHex 5.0 is unable
		   to produce text-format BinHex files, its utility is rather
		   questionable.  BinHex 5.0 was written before the MacBinary
		   II format was introduced, and so does not have support for
		   the MacBinary II enhancements.

                                        -- Thomas Newton