A 7-bit ASCII file-encoding format which preserves Mac resource forks and metadata for transport over non-Mac filesystems. Analogous to uuencode and base64, which do not preserve Mac-specific file attributes. Mostly used for older ‘Classic’ apps and archives. Not needed for .dmg disk images and newer (post-5.0 ?) StuffIt formats.

Spec is available at [http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/dev/info/binhex-40-specs.txt]

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See also The Prehistory of BinHex at [http://www.tim-mann.org/binhex.html]. Seems it started out as a TRS-80 BASIC program!