sending an attachment - simple question

isn't the way that we use to send things using unix to the e-mail ? I tried this so many times but I don't get anything in my e-mailbox

    $ uuencode ali.txt | mail ali@home.com

try this... you need to give the attachment file twice.

uuencode ali.txt ali.txt| mailx -s "write subject here" ali#home.com

cheers,

Amit