It's not the actual binary files that are really the problem, but the
..changes and .sources files. They are simply large text files, but the
image maintains offsets into them to find the actual source code.
Browsers, decompression programs, and even some ftp clients in auto mode
like to be "helpful" and reformat these files to the "native" OS eol
convention (sometimes also getting rid of trailing spaces, converting
tabs to spaces or vice-versa, or other nasty things) -- therefore the
ways they can become corrupted are myriad unless you carefully kill all
these "helpful" defaults.

-- Dwight

Marcel Weiher wrote:
> 
> A suggestion:  make binary files accessible only in a compressed
> format that will break in an obvious way (almost all do).
> 
> > From: Dan Ingalls <Dan.Ingalls at disney.com>
> > PS:  Please repeat after me...
> >
> > I will fetch all files in raw binary mode.
> > I will fetch all files in raw binary mode.
> > I will fetch all files in raw binary mode.
> > I will fetch all files in raw binary mode.
> > I will fetch all files in raw binary mode.
> > I will fetch all files in raw binary mode.