3 ms·
historically base64 was developed to make binary data printable.
by 2-718-281-828 3y ago
historically base64 was developed to make binary data printable.
- cpach 3y agoI thought it was developed for sending binary files over SMTP/Usenet.
- 2-718-281-828 3y agopossible. "printable" seems to be just the category but not that it was actually printed. of course some people print base64 of encrypted passwords (for offline storage) that would otherwise contain unprintable characters. usenet exists since 1979/80 [1] and base64 was first described in 1987 [2]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet 2: https://base64.guru/learn/what-is-base64 https://base64.guru/learn/what-is-base64
- beej71 3y agoMaybe, but uuencode was there first! :)
- kps 3y agoMIME picked Base64 because uuencode uses a larger character set which, while fine for its original uu (Unix-to-Unix) purposes, made it less robust to cross-platform weirdness.
- wichert 3y agouuencode was used for SMTP/Usenet. Base64 became popular as part of MIME if I remember correctly.