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Why do people call an executable file (.exe) a binary file?
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Zero999:

--- Quote from: TomS_ on April 26, 2020, 09:33:50 am ---So as far as I'm concerned, binary is completely acceptable and appropriate. My interpretation is that Microsoft simply chose the extension .exe, short for executable, as a way to identify the contents of a file as being "code". For the user it makes it easy to identify which file they should double click to launch the application. Perhaps the OS relies on that extension to know that it should load and execute the code contained within, if it doesn't have any other metadata to describe what the file is and what to do with it (e.g. if you rename it to .txt it would open in Notepad instead).

--- End quote ---
Executables are also denoted by magic numbers, normally at the start of the file, followed by other information, the CPU architecture and where the code and data are found in the file. MS starts every file with MZ and Linux the hex code 7F (the delete* control code in ASCII), followed by the ASCII characters ELF. Linux doesn't worry about extension so much as Windows and will run an executable file, if it starts with the aforementioned magic number and is compatible with the machine's architecture.

*Because delete isn't an accepted control code in a text file, there's no telling what a text editor will do when it encounters the delete control code. It might display it as a symbol or it could simply stop reading the file.
HobGoblyn:

--- Quote from: Brumby on April 25, 2020, 11:54:14 am ---
The term 'binary file' is used because no matter how you look at the content, it's just a bunch of 1's and 0's.


--- End quote ---

You could look at some binary files using the right disassembly program ;)
m98:

--- Quote from: magic on April 26, 2020, 06:44:20 am ---I gather the number in your nick is your year of birth :P
This made up word didn't even exist when most of us started using computers :D

--- End quote ---

Well, you could protest the change using your senior citizen bonus, or simply accept that it has become an international standard.
Seriously, what kind of an discussion is this.
Brumby:

--- Quote from: HobGoblyn on April 26, 2020, 10:41:13 am ---
--- Quote from: Brumby on April 25, 2020, 11:54:14 am ---
The term 'binary file' is used because no matter how you look at the content, it's just a bunch of 1's and 0's.


--- End quote ---

You could look at some binary files using the right disassembly program ;)

--- End quote ---
Disassembly programs .... Hah!

Be a real programmer.  Write in assembler.  You soon learn to read a hex dump one-to-one with your program source.

I was reading the IBM S/370 Principles Of Operations manual in 1976.  Writing application software in assembler kept me employed for more than 8 years before I stretched out into other languages.


But, I will admit that in today's bloatware such an approach has its issues.
jmsc_02:

--- Quote from: Syntax Error on April 25, 2020, 02:21:41 pm ---
It's just historic, rather like how we use the term 'cloud' for the internet. Anyone care to explain why we say "the cloud"?

--- End quote ---

Hahahah... This made me laugh because I think the term "cloud" comes from many 2000 age presentations where the internet was always shown as a cloud to abstract the complexity of connect two remote points and managers start to refer it as "cloud". example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network#/media/File%3AVPN_overview-en.svg

Regarding the topic: always i keep something as an absolute truth, the experience is always the thing that tells me I was absolutelly wrong.

Other: why the save button is shown as a floppy disk? Last time I used one was 15 years ago and was to use a 20 years old computer
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