Date   : Tue, 22 Jul 1986 17:17:05 DNT
From   : TTTLEH5%NEUVM1.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: rev to uuencode/uudecode

* I got some strange msg's from info-cpm @ amsaa . arpa ,
* so I resend this letter.
                 Hi Cpm people.

I got the uuencode/uudecode files some days ago, this is really what we
need.
BUT because of all these networks, where some of the gateways change
some of the special characters (like the ARPANET - BITNET gateway), one
can't trust all the special characters made by uuencode. So this have
to be changed. And the problem is to choose 64 chracters, which does not
changed when ported from network to network. So I took these:
             ':', '0'..'9', 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z', '.'
eg. ':', all digits, all upper and lower case letters, '.', hoping that
they will be useable. So if we can use this instead of the UUENCODE/UU-
DECODE there is a chance of making the stuff you send useable to BITNET
users too. Or at least use it when sending binfiles to the Info-Cpm list.

So far I am working on the encoding part of the program. I have used the
code from UUENCODE/UUDECODE as inspiration, but started over because I
did not like the coding style of them. And I will probaly start on the
decoding part one of the next days. So within a week or two I should
have working and testing Pascal programs finished. But I do not know
when I can mail them to the list. That may take some time. But when done
the .COM file should be coded in some kind of HEX format, so all can
download them without problems. This is true bootstraping.

What I want is to hear what you mean about this. Comments and ideas are
very welcome. Hope that you like it and that I did not leave too much out
when explaining my ideas.

Kind regrads from Copenhagen -- Denmark.

               Klaus Elmquist Nielsen

BITNET: TTTLEH5 at NEUVM1
        NEUKLAUS at NEUVM1

To explain how UUENCODE works, just try to look at the binary file as
one long bitstring. If one then take 6 bit at a time, this gives you a
sequence of numbers in the range 0..63 . And since it is possible to find
64 independent characters, this give you a sequence of chars, or a text
file. Organising this in lines with control info like line length, header
and terminater gives you a useable fileformat.
UUDECODE do the work in the reverse order, eg make a binary file from the
ascii file from UUENCODE.