<s>
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
file	O
format	O
that	O
combines	O
the	O
two	O
forks	O
of	O
a	O
classic	B-Application
Mac	I-Application
OS	I-Application
file	O
into	O
a	O
single	O
file	O
,	O
along	O
with	O
HFS	B-Application
's	I-Application
extended	O
metadata	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
resulting	O
file	O
is	O
suitable	O
for	O
transmission	O
over	O
FTP	B-Protocol
,	O
the	O
World	O
Wide	O
Web	O
,	O
and	O
electronic	O
mail	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
documents	O
can	O
also	O
be	O
stored	O
on	O
computers	O
that	O
run	O
operating	B-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
with	O
no	O
HFS	B-Application
support	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Unix	B-Application
or	O
Windows	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
was	O
widely	O
supported	O
on	O
the	O
Macintosh	B-Device
and	O
was	O
built	O
into	O
most	O
communications	O
programs	O
on	O
that	O
platform	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Similar	O
solutions	O
were	O
built	O
into	O
most	O
data	B-General_Concept
compression	I-General_Concept
applications	O
on	O
the	O
Mac	O
,	O
and	O
although	O
these	O
did	O
not	O
require	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
to	O
survive	O
transmission	O
across	O
non-Mac	O
systems	O
,	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
was	O
often	O
added	O
in	O
these	O
cases	O
to	O
preserve	O
longer	O
filenames	O
and	O
other	O
features	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
dual-fork	O
nature	O
of	O
the	O
HFS	B-Application
system	O
was	O
not	O
used	O
on	O
Mac	B-Operating_System
OS	I-Operating_System
X	I-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
has	O
largely	O
disappeared	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
contrast	O
to	O
other	O
computers	O
of	O
the	O
era	O
,	O
Macintosh	B-Device
applications	O
included	O
both	O
computer	O
code	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
a	O
large	O
number	O
of	O
resources	O
that	O
were	O
used	O
by	O
the	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
(	O
OS	O
)	O
itself	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Physically	O
these	O
were	O
separate	O
files	O
,	O
but	O
the	O
OS	O
would	O
ensure	O
the	O
two	O
separate	O
files	O
were	O
always	O
treated	O
as	O
a	O
single	O
object	O
,	O
so	O
dragging	O
it	O
to	O
a	O
floppy	B-Device
disk	I-Device
in	O
the	O
Finder	B-Application
would	O
copy	O
both	O
forks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
was	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
most	O
popular	O
solutions	O
,	O
although	O
BinHex	O
was	O
also	O
used	O
on	O
UseNet	B-Application
,	O
where	O
data	O
transfer	O
was	O
not	O
8-bit	O
clean	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Apple	O
's	O
own	O
solutions	O
,	O
AppleSingle	B-Application
and	I-Application
AppleDouble	I-Application
,	O
were	O
never	O
widely	O
adopted	O
in	O
the	O
user	O
community	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Files	O
encoded	O
with	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
,	O
regardless	O
of	O
the	O
version	O
,	O
usually	O
have	O
a	O
.bin	O
or	O
.macbin	O
file	O
extension	O
appended	O
to	O
the	O
ends	O
of	O
their	O
filenames	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
E-mail	O
programs	O
such	O
as	O
Eudora	B-Operating_System
can	O
extract	O
and	O
decode	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
mail	O
messages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
dedicated	O
FTP	B-Protocol
programs	O
for	O
the	O
Mac	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Fetch	B-Application
and	O
Transmit	B-Operating_System
,	O
transparently	O
decode	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
files	O
they	O
download	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
is	O
similar	O
to	O
BinHex	O
,	O
but	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
produces	O
binary	O
files	O
as	O
opposed	O
to	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
text	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Thus	O
,	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
files	O
are	O
smaller	O
than	O
BinHex	O
files	O
,	O
but	O
older	O
applications	O
and	O
servers	O
are	O
more	O
likely	O
to	O
corrupt	O
them	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
first	O
incarnation	O
of	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
was	O
released	O
in	O
1985	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
standard	O
was	O
originally	O
specified	O
by	O
Dennis	O
Brothers	O
(	O
author	O
of	O
the	O
terminal	B-Application
program	I-Application
MacTEP	O
and	O
later	O
an	O
Apple	O
employee	O
)	O
,	O
BinHex	O
author	O
Yves	O
Lempereur	O
,	O
PackIt	B-Operating_System
author	O
Harry	O
Chesley	O
,	O
et	O
al	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
then	O
added	O
support	O
for	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
into	O
BinHex	O
5.0	O
,	O
using	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
to	O
combine	O
the	O
forks	O
instead	O
of	O
his	O
own	O
methods	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
terminal	B-Application
programs	I-Application
and	O
internet	O
utilities	O
added	O
built-in	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
support	O
during	O
this	O
period	O
as	O
well	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Two	O
years	O
later	O
it	O
was	O
updated	O
to	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
II	O
,	O
to	O
accommodate	O
changes	O
in	O
Mac	B-Application
OS	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
II	O
remained	O
compatible	O
with	O
subsequent	O
updates	O
of	O
the	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
for	O
some	O
time	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
changed	O
with	O
the	O
release	O
of	O
Mac	B-Operating_System
OS	I-Operating_System
8	I-Operating_System
,	O
which	O
necessitated	O
the	O
release	O
of	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
III	O
in	O
1996	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
meantime	O
,	O
Apple	O
itself	O
had	O
released	O
the	O
AppleSingle	B-Application
and	I-Application
AppleDouble	I-Application
formats	I-Application
,	O
which	O
serve	O
the	O
same	O
purpose	O
as	O
MacBinary	B-General_Concept
,	O
but	O
correct	O
some	O
problems	O
with	O
it	O
.	O
</s>
