What are binary and ASCII?
These are types of files – ASCII files are human-readable, generally text. Binary files can only be read by computers; they can be encoded text files or other types of files, and look like ‘lots of garbage characters’ if you try to read them. The Internet is set up to transfer ASCII files in mail, so if you want to send binary files via mail, they must be encoded on the sender’s end and decoded on the receiver’s end, WITH THE SAME encoding program. There are many encoding programs for DOS and Mac. Note: SVPAL’s Pine mailing program uses a protocol called MIME which automatically transforms an “attached” binary file. If the file is sent to a system using MIME, the attachment will automatically be returned to its original form.
