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Technically, a file in which all eight
bits of its component bytes are used for data. Unlike ascii-
format text files, which contain only generic keyboard characters that can
be read by any computer, binary files often contain code specific to the
sort of processor in the machine that created the file. This is why binary
files attached to e-mail messages must be converted to seven-bit
ascii before being sent to a recipient who may be using a different
machine.
Not all binary files contain processor-specific codes.
Graphics files, for example, use all eight bits for data but no machine
code. Other examples of binary files include spreadsheets, programs such as
windows. exe files and word-processor documents. |
