>> One of the original purposes/uses of Base64 was for sending email attachments when dealing with 7-bit (as opposed to 8-bit) transmission paths. Now that in most cases the session is done via 8-bit clean paths this need is less important.
How about XML documents? They do need UTF-8, but compressed data will have codes in it that are not valid UTF-8 char. Or hashcodes of content might end up with non valid UTF-8 combinations. Here Base64 comes in handy. -- Martin Pi_cap_CPU - all you ever need around MWLC/SCRT/CMT in z/VSE more at http://www.picapcpu.de
