Doc/lib/libbinhex.tex

   1 \section{\module{binhex} ---
   2          Encode and decode binhex4 files}
   3
   4 \declaremodule{standard}{binhex}
   5 \modulesynopsis{Encode and decode files in binhex4 format.}
   6
   7
   8 This module encodes and decodes files in binhex4 format, a format
   9 allowing representation of Macintosh files in \ASCII.  On the Macintosh,
  10 both forks of a file and the finder information are encoded (or
  11 decoded), on other platforms only the data fork is handled.
  12
  13 The \module{binhex} module defines the following functions:
  14
  15 \begin{funcdesc}{binhex}{input, output}
  16 Convert a binary file with filename \var{input} to binhex file
  17 \var{output}. The \var{output} parameter can either be a filename or a
  18 file-like object (any object supporting a \method{write()} and
  19 \method{close()} method).
  20 \end{funcdesc}
  21
  22 \begin{funcdesc}{hexbin}{input\optional{, output}}
  23 Decode a binhex file \var{input}. \var{input} may be a filename or a
  24 file-like object supporting \method{read()} and \method{close()} methods.
  25 The resulting file is written to a file named \var{output}, unless the
  26 argument is omitted in which case the output filename is read from the
  27 binhex file.
  28 \end{funcdesc}
  29
  30 The following exception is also defined:
  31
  32 \begin{excdesc}{Error}
  33 Exception raised when something can't be encoded using the binhex
  34 format (for example, a filename is too long to fit in the filename
  35 field), or when input is not properly encoded binhex data.
  36 \end{excdesc}
  37
  38
  39 \begin{seealso}
  40   \seemodule{binascii}{Support module containing \ASCII-to-binary
  41                        and binary-to-\ASCII{} conversions.}
  42 \end{seealso}
  43
  44
  45 \subsection{Notes \label{binhex-notes}}
  46
  47 There is an alternative, more powerful interface to the coder and
  48 decoder, see the source for details.
  49
  50 If you code or decode textfiles on non-Macintosh platforms they will
  51 still use the Macintosh newline convention (carriage-return as end of
  52 line).
  53
  54 As of this writing, \function{hexbin()} appears to not work in all
  55 cases.