binhex

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
BinHex

   <file format> A {Macintosh} format for representing a {binary
   file} using only {printable characters}.  The file is
   converted to lines of letters, numbers and punctuation.
   Because BinHex files are simply text they can be sent through
   most {electronic mail} systems and stored on most computers.
   However the conversion to text makes the file larger, so it
   takes longer to transmit a file in BinHex format than if the
   file was represented some other way.

   {Filename extension}: .hqx.

   See also {BinHex 4.0}, {uuencode}.

   [Encoding algorithm?]

   (1994-11-30)