Some Internet protocols were not designed to carry binary (program and other non-text files) files. They are able only to transfer messages made up of conventional text (printable ASCII) characters. In order to get around that limitation, UUencode and other methods were created.
These solutions all perform the same basic operation: they encode the non-transferable binary file into ASCII characters that the e-mail system can handle. The person receiving the message can then decode the strings of characters to recreate the original file. Perhaps you have seen one of these completely unintelligible messages; here's an example:
_=_
_=_ Part 001 of 001 of file encoded.txt
_=_
begin 666 encoded.txt
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:;F<@=7-I;F<@5VEN6FEP+@T*#0I%;FIO>2$`
`
end
WinZip® can easily open and extract UUencoded, XXencoded, BinHex, and MIME files (base64, plain/text, and quoted-printable) that have been sent to you, and create Uuencoded files for you to send.
UUencoded, XXencoded, BinHex, and MIME files
Sending Files using Internet Mail
The Why behind UUencoding and Other Schemes
Receiving and Preparing Files for Decoding
UUencoding a File using WinZip
Hints, Tips, & Troubleshooting