Chris G Demetriou <Chris_G_Demetriou@UX2.SP.CS.CMU.EDU> wrote:
[ about uuencode using ` instead of space ]
> Looking at the SCCS logs on vangogh, i see that the change was brought
> in back in 1985 (!!), and was part of "bug fixes and changes from Rick
> Adams."  Sounds like the format was changed, the docs weren't updated,
> and the old format is still decoded because some systems still use it.

I can explain this from a historical perspective. Non-Internet mailers
often mangle spaces in irreversable ways. Especially BITNET mailers
strip trailing spaces, and turn multiple spaces into tabs. Similar
problems occur with the ^ (caret) which often is translated into the
EBCDIC code for "fishhook", another symbol used for "not". When
translated back to ASCII it had a good chance of turning into a ~
(tilde). Therefore some uudecode programs treat a ~ as a ^.

Also some uuencodes add a one-character checksum to each line (NetBSD's
doesn't).  I could dig up patches to add this if desired. I think it is
a Good Thing.

> chris
-Olaf.
--
___ Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert      D787B44DFC896063 4CBB95A5BD1DAA96 
\X/ Ceci n'est pas un Magritte          rhialto@polder.ubc.kun.nl