BinHex
| Filename extension | .hqx |
|---|---|
| Internet media type | application/mac-binhex40 |
| Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) | com.apple.binhex-archive |
BinHex, short for "binary-to-hexadecimal", is a binary-to-text encoding system that was used on the classic Mac OS for sending binary files through e-mail. It is similar to Uuencode, but combined both "forks" of the Mac file system together along with extended file information. BinHexed files take up more space than the original files, but will not be corrupted by non-"8-bit clean" software.
BinHex was originally written by Tim Mann for the TRS-80, as a stand-alone version of an encoding scheme originally built into a popular terminal emulator. It worked by converting the binary file contents to hexadecimal numbers, which were themselves encoded as ASCII digits and letters. BinHex files of the era were typically given the file extension .hex. BinHex was used for sending files via major online services such as CompuServe, which were not "8-bit clean" and required ASCII armoring to survive. CompuServe later addressed this problem in the mid-1980s with the addition of 8-bit clean file transfer protocols, and solutions like BinHex stopped being used.
The file upload problem still existed on CompuServe when the Mac was first released in 1984. William Davis ported BinHex to the Mac using Microsoft BASIC in a simple version that could encode the data fork only, ignoring the resource fork. The rise in use of Internet e-mail coincided roughly with the release of the Macintosh, and Davis's version was posted on the Info-Mac mailing list by Joel Heller in June 1984. Several newer versions were published during 1984, resulting in BinHex 3 that could encode both forks.
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