On 2014-08-09, at 03:25, Robert A. Rosenberg wrote: > At 00:29 -0400 on 08/09/2014, Phil Smith III wrote about Re: Convert to > base64 help (Cross posted from IBM-Main): > >> Base64 is normally used to allow safe transmission of strings that may >> contain non-typable/non-translatable characters. > > 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. > I've not found that to be true "in most cases". More often, I can negotiate an 8-bit connection with SMTP only to find when the message arrives that some interloper has converted it to base64 or Q-P.
They don't trust each other. -- gil
