Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!tekecs!bradn
From: bradn@tekecs.UUCP (Brad Needham)
Newsgroups: net.sources
Subject: uuencode, backslashes, and mail
Message-ID: <1719@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 24-Jul-83 18:24:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.1719
Posted: Sun Jul 24 18:24:15 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Jul-83 22:09:51 EDT
Lines: 14

When the problem of mailers converting a pair of backslashes into a single
backslash first showed up, many people suggested using uuencode(1) to avoid
the problem.  Unfortunately, given the appropriate (printable) input,
uuencode can generate a pair of backslashes!

As a hack to get my lex file onto the net, I translated all the backslashes
into '@' (a character not used in C) and arranged to have the receiving site
convert them back into backslashes.

I *thought* that one of the advantages of a computer network was the ability
to share source -- to reliably send arbitrary data from one site to another.
It looks like it'll be awhile before this mess becomes a real network.

	Brad Needham