Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: xx vs. uu
Keywords: xxencode uuencode zoo
Message-ID: <96075@looking.on.ca>
Date: 15 Feb 90 00:38:10 GMT
References: <1513@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <3418@plains.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 71
Class: discussion

May I suggest my ABE encoder?  It's free, runs on DOS, Unix and other machines,
and was designed with a group like comp.binaries.* in mind.

It supports UUENCODE as one if its encoding methods, so you don't need a dabe
program to decode such an encoding.  Or it comes with tiny (< 4K byte source)
decoders for the two ABE formats that can be posted with each encoding or
at regular intervals at miniscule cost.

In any ABE format ABE has the following features:
	a) Recover random scrambling easily
	b) Just run dabe on a series of files, with any added junk, parts in
	   random order, duplicates, reposts, headers etc. and you get your
	   binary if it can.  ie.
		dabe /usr/spool/mail/mybox
	    or
		dabe /usr/spool/news/comp/binaries/ibm/pc/101*
	   works!  Also creates partial files with gaps if instructed.
	c) CRC-32, checksums and byte counts on each block.
	d) Support for owners, dates, strange filenames etc.

The ABE formats also support:
	Smaller encoding that uuencode on non-compressed files
	Text inside binaries is encoded as itself, and is thus readable --
		you can look at a binary and figure what it is.
	Extensible features -- the decoder can be taught to understand more
		than the encoders use.
	The ABE2 format avoids all characters that have been known to be
	munged on USENET, for example by translation to EBCDIC & back.

In short it was designed to handle all the typical problems of binary
distribution over USENET.  It also can encode multiple files, although it
is not really an archiver.

Here is the header of this message in /tmp/hdr, abe encoded, with comments
This is a bit bulky for a very short file, but a small cost on a longer
file.  The first 3 chars are an optional 'line number'.  If this file gets
mucked up or split into parts, 'sort' can restore it!

;ABE ASCII-Binary-Encoding (by Brad Templeton)
;Use 'sort' and/or 'dabe' to decode
T./z$$filecount=1			/* how many files in this encoding */
T.0N##S1000,1000,1000,ABE1		/* version info */
T.1N$$blocking=false			/* not a blocked header */
T.2N$$uname=hdr				/* multi-OS filename */
T.3f$$os=unix				/* OS that did encoding */
T.4t$$fname=/tmp/hdr			/* filename under that OS */
T.57$$owner=brad			/* owner of file under that OS */
T.6l$$date=635042028			/* unix timestamp on file */
T.7p$$perm=33204			/* unix style permission mask */
T.8O$$size=226				/* bytes in file */
	/* below we get the character set mapping for this file */
T.99""%C=<;M:987M65/4J3210M/.-,M+*)(M'&%qL`_^]%
T.A0""&.\[Z%Y%&'%()*+%,-WX%0123%4567%89:;%<=>?%
T.BI""'@ABC%DEFG%HIJK%LMNO%PQRS%TUVW&XYZ[M\]^_M
T.CU""(`abc@defg%hijk%lmno%pqrs.tuvw%xyz>&?@ABM
T.Dk"")DFGHMIJKLMMNOPMQRSTMUVabMcdefMghijMklmnM
T.Ez""*oprsMtuvwMxyz%N&'()u*+,-u./01u2345u6789u
T.F5""+:;<=u>?@AuBCDEuFGHIuJKLMuNOPQuRSTUuVWXYu
T.GH"",Z[\]u^_`aubcdeufghiujklmunopqurstuuvwxEt
	/* here is the actual encoding, space is '.', NL is '/' */
T.H3Newsgroups:.compWbinariesWibmWpcWd/Subject:.Re:.xx.vsW.uu/Summary
T.Ia:./Followup-To:./Distribution:./Organization:.Looking.Glass.Softw
T.J8are.LtdW/Keywords:.xxencode.uuencode.zoo/References:.<1513@krafla
T.KpWrhiWhiWis>.<3418@plainsWUUCP>/
	/* end of file stuff, and CRC */
T.Lt$$end_file=hdr
T.M5$$filecrc32=3951218314
T.NB##E20970
;End of ABE encoding
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473