Have you considered xxencode? It works similarly to uuencode, but
uses a safe character set. I am working on a new version now, but you
can find the old version in the wuarchive.wustl.edu ftp server in the
mirrors/msdos/starter/xxinstal.bat file. Unfortunately, you must have
an MsDos system to decode it. Write to me if you want it in an
uuencoded mailing. -David-
Please reread the archives of this list, where this issue has been discussed
over and over and over again. The decision to use base64 encoding was not
made in a vacuum. Let me also point out that base64 encoding was not invented
by this working group -- it is "prior art" from the PEM working group and has
been around for several years.
The one advantage to uuencode is that it is widely available. The major
disadvantage is that it is not robust enough. An encoding that's not compatible
with uuencode axiomatically does not share the advantage of widespread
implementation.
Finally, there are countless possible encodings that would meet the
requirements for use in MIME, and if you've done your homework I'm sure it is
one of them. But we had to pick one of them, and we did so, and that's where we
are now.
Ned