(recode.info)MIME

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MIME contents encodings
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   RFC 2045 defines two 7-bit surfaces, meant to prepare 8-bit messages
for transmission.  Base64 is especially usable for binary entities,
while Quoted-Printable is especially usable for text entities, in those
case the lower 128 characters of the underlying charset coincide with
ASCII.

`Base64'
     This surface is available in `recode' under the name `Base64',
     with `b64' and `64' as acceptable aliases.

`Quoted-Printable'
     This surface is available in `recode' under the name
     `Quoted-Printable', with `quote-printable' and `QP' as acceptable
     aliases.

   Note that `UTF-7', which may be also considered as a MIME surface,
is provided as a genuine charset instead, as it necessary relates to
`UCS-2' and nothing else.  Note: UTF-7.

   A little historical note, also showing the three levels of
acceptance of Internet standards.  MIME changed from a "Proposed
Standard" (RFC 1341-1344, 1992) to a "Draft Standard" (RFC 1521-1523)
in 1993, and was _recycled_ as a "Draft Standard" in 1996-11.  It is
not yet a "Full Standard".