UUdeview Readme *************** The Problem =========== You can't post (or email) binary files to newsgroups as binary files, since binary files contain lots of unprintable characters. Therefore, files must be coded into printable characters. There are a couple of methods available, like the macintosh binhex. The most popular encoding method is uuencoding, which first became standard in the unix world. Unfortunately, there is another limitation to mailing or news-posting coded programs, since many mail or news gateways have an upper file size limit. Therefore, files must also be split into multiple parts to allow these gateways to handle them. But the standard decoder programs aren't built to handle this. They can only work unsplit files. Concatenating the individual mails/postings does not help, since they contain lots of headers that confuse the decoder. The only help is to manually delete the headers from the mails/postings with a text editor. And, some of the bigger files come in more than 50 parts. You don't want to sit down and edit 50 files only to see a single animation, do you? And still we're not through yet. Although the files are usually posted in the right order, they don't necessarily arrive correctly ordered. So you must also manually put them in order. I hope I have you convinced by now that you do not want to have to do this stuff. By now, you should think "Well, there must be something to simplify decoding". And you're right. This is where UUdeview steps in. The Idea ======== The Idea was to create a program that does all the work for you. You should not have to manually strip headers, and you shouldn't be troubled by the order of the files. And, the program should be able to process multiple files at once. Now combine all this with a simple and friendly user-interface, and you have UUdeview! Featuring ... ============= Some of the highlights include: o Shoot'em'up interface. You fire up the program will all input files on the command line, and uudeview will then present you all decodeable files. o Basically is a smart multi-file multi-part decoder, but also feels at home dumbly with single-file single-part input. o Features the encoding schemes "UUencode", "XXencode" and "Base64" (aka MIME); these schemes are auto-detected for each email/article. o Ports exist for Unix, DOS and Windows, so if you frequently change your operating system, UUdeview will migrate with you. o The unique SPMS(r) technology sometimes allows to recover from errors in the original postings' subject line. If you have parts 1,2 and 4 of 'test' and part 3 of 'toast', the program will try to guess these parts belong together. o The Unix and DOS versions allow file previews without decoding the file (well, in fact it is decoded, but you won't notice) o Usually asks before decoding each file, but can as well be configured for batch-decoding. o The Windows version includes the UUdeview Launcher, allowing for drag-and-drop decoding, and selection of options by mouseclick The Philosophy ============== UUdeview's philosophy is "to work". Thus it is programmed for to be smart and will decode files that other programs don't, or decode incorrectly. On the other hand, it is not designed for maximum fanciness; compared to other decoders it may look anachronistic. But you can decide on your own whether you want maximum operatability or maximum fanciness. And then there is another feature in favour of UUdeview, distinguishing it from other, similar utilities: It is free. I have found that most other decoders fit into one of two categories. Either they are not too bright (most get confused by parts that are not ordered), or they are not free. Behind the Frontend =================== UUdeview evaluates the 'subject:' line. From the subject line, it tries to derive the name of the file and the part number. It looks for a filename of the kind string.suffix (also accepting more than one suffix). This file name must then appear on all subject lines containing other parts from this file (if it doesn't, hope for SPMS). If there's nothing on the subject that looks like a file name, don't worry, then UUdeview will find something else. And this subject-line file name isn't used for anything else than subject-line matching, anyway. For the actual file, the filename from the 'begin' line is used. The program is also quite tolerant with part numbers. First, it looks for numbers in brackets (16/22) or (16 of 22) or simply (16). Secondly, it looks for the same kind of information in square brackets. Then it looks for the string "Part 16" or "Part #16" or something similar. As long as there actually is a part number, chances are that it will be found. Will there ever be a version 1.0? ================================= UUdeview was originally developed for Unix only, and it was planned to feature a full-screen curses menu-driven interface. Then I thought about it some more, discovered the above philosophy and found it not necessary for a program such simple to have a bombastic interface -- which would only make it more incompatible. Because this interface was planned for 1.0, and I have now decided not to include such an interface, it is unlikely that there will ever be version 1.0. But hey, the version is only a number that really doesn't tell anything. Known Bugs ========== o UUdeview only accepts Base64 (MIME) data that has a line length of a multiple of four. The MIME standard does not enforce a particular length. So far, no file with a non-multiple-of-four line length has been found. o In its desperate attempts to merge file parts, SPMS might infrequently produce a junk file (consisting partially of an AU file and partially of an MPEG, for example). Again, this has yet to happen to me. File_id.diz =========== Personally, I do hate these files. They are always the first one to suffer from a massive del attack after unpacking any archive. But upon request, here's mine: ---- (version 0.4) powerful multi-file multi-part decoder for uuencoded, xxencoded, and Base64 (MIME) encoded data. Works with news postings as well as emailed data. Free but copyrighted (GPL). WWW home at http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~fp/ Frank Pilhofer fp@informatik.uni-frankfurt.de ---- Famous last words ================= Although the program is free, donations are always gladly accepted , be it postcards, email, hardware or anything else. I will conquer the last step in the evolution of UUdeview, the Macintosh port, as soon as someone donates me a Mac. For you lawyers out there: Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple. UUdeview and SPMS are unregistered trademarks of Frank Pilhofer Projects (FPP) Frank Pilhofer Back to the Homepage Last modified: Tue Feb 14 09:18:28 1995