Not Executables vs Binaries... Executables = Binaries
- but Binaries does not always = Executables
TEXT FILE = human-readable
- made up of understandable English words and numbers; high-level programming languages; typically ASCII Characters (maps 0s & 1s to English)
BINARY FILE = computer-readable but not human-readable, plural = BINARIES
- chunks of 0s and 1s; series of 0s, 1s, letters that only machines can read (UTF-8, ISO-8859-2); must be interpreted by hardware; everything that is not plain text
EXECUTABLE(s) = a binary file meant to run an application; contains various headers, program code, and resource data that tell the operating system how to run the application
- compiled Text into binary 0s and 1s meant to perform an app function
- Linux extension ".bin"
- Windows extension ".exe"
for Programmers