[net.micro.mac] WHAT IS BINHEX?

jxf6805@ritcv.UUCP (Joe Froehlich) (03/04/85)

I am new to the net community and need some orientation.  What is BINHEX?
How do I use it?  Can someone please give me a quick rundown on how to get
started and what I need?  Thanks!

spector@acf4.UUCP (David HM Spector) (03/04/85)

BinHex is a system by which Macintosh applications & data are translated 
into ascii hex codes.  These can then be sent via modem, even without 
an error correcting protocol, and turned back into their original form.  
There are three versions of the protocol.  BinHex1 is a one-to-one 
translation from binary data to ascii hex-code, BinHex3 is a version that 
does some data compression, and is commonly called 
"Compressed (foo.HCX) BinHex".  You may be wondering how I got from BinHex1 
to BinHex3 so fast, this is because the Original program
was written in MicroSoft BASIC, the next incarnation of the program was written
in in Assembly and was known as BinHex2.  The latest version, called BinHex4
uses only printing characters, lots more compression and some error correction,
so in case you are using the data capture method of transferring files, you have
a better chance of catching single bit errors, et al..


				Hope this helps...


					Dave.

carlile@trwrba.UUCP (Donald E. Carlile) (03/08/85)

That was an interesting history lesson, but what I, and I suspect several other neophytes want and need is a version of BINHEX that we can use.  I somehow got a copy of the BASIC BINHEX (which I will post if asked), but it won't read current versions.   HELP!
   Don Carlile 
   (a number of systems)!trwb!trwba!carlile