[Coco] Glenside Jacket Logo

[Roger Taylor]

At 10:24 PM 4/11/2009, you wrote:

>Brian, all attachments for email are larger than the file sent 

>because they are encoded ASCII and not in binary format.

>It's a hold over from the 7-bit format days of early modems and pre-Internet.

>

>Remember, sending a 7-bit character was 9% faster than sending full 

>8-bit character.

>

>An old 500 8-bit character message sent at 110 baud would take 50 seconds.

>But a 500 7-bit character message send at the same speed would only 

>take 45 seconds.  (5 seconds faster.)

>

>The extra bit was a big deal till modem speeds hit about 2400 baud 

>or so.  But it was too late because encoded ASCII was the standard 

>for attachments.



ASCII streams also allow for manual entry and EOL termination by keyboard.

-- 
Roger Taylor

http://www.wordofthedayonline.com