[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