XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-xp, alt.windows7.general, alt.msdos.batch.nt   
   From: jj4public@gmail.com   
      
   On 8 Feb 2026 10:52:52 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:   
      
   > JJ  wrote:   
   >> On Sat, 7 Feb 2026 13:39:27 +0100, Herbert Kleebauer wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> Good joke. The usenet is nearly completely binary only in these days.   
   >>   
   >> Usenet message is based on email message standard, and email was intended   
   >> for text only. Initially.   
   >>   
   >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet#Binary_content   
   >>   
   >> But technology evolve. I think it all started when MIME was created (in   
   >> early 90s) and allow messages to be delivered in full 8-bit glory instead of   
   >> just 7-bit. [*]   
   >   
   >   As others have mentioned, binary content on Usenet/NetNews precedes   
   > MIME by quite a long time. At first, uuencode was used, which works for   
   > a 7-bit data path.   
   >   
   >   For example the DOS binary of uudecode.com was transmitted as a *text*   
   > file to overcome the Catch-22 problem of the recipient not (yet)   
   > having uudecode.com needed to decode the uuencode-d binaries [1].   
   >   
   > [...]   
   >   
   > [1] The (59KB) 'CBIP Starter's Kit' posted to comp.binaries.ibm.pc   
   > contained:   
   > 1) Instructions   
   > 2) Text source for UUDECODE   
   > 3) UNZIP, ZIP file extractor, in UUENCODE form   
   > "All you need is a file editor."   
      
   I was referring to the actual as-is message data which was initially   
   restricted to 7-bit. Not the encoded binary data it can carry, since binary   
   data can even be encoded in just 1-bit.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)