On Mon, 30 Sep 1996, Lee Jones wrote:

> [...]
> Technically speaking, the file is added as a binary attachment.
> The encoding occurs when going through a gateway (Base64 is part
> of the MIME specification for SMTP transport on the Internet).
>
> If you use a MIME-aware user agent, the Base64 encoding is totally
> transparent and not visible.

  Not quite.

  Many MIME aware user agents deal with binaries by either:
    1) Ask you what you want to do with the binary attachment,
or  2) Inform you that you have one, and can use the Mime commands
       to deal with it.
or  3) visually put up a block where it was, and pointer to commands.
or  4) Decide that is is a binary that it does not know how to process,
       and leaves it as Base64. i


  I personally find the WINMAIL.DAT files an annoyance, but not
  a problem.     (My mailer just tells me that there is one...)
  It would be nice if folk didn't put them on, but clearly I can
  ignore them quite easily.