Synonym for binary file? (take II)

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Bruce Byfield observed: <<A common synonym [for binary file] is
"executable.">>

Common, but not necessarily the right term. For example, most graphics and
many database files are binary but not executable. The term "binary" more
commonly means that the file is stored in software- or machine-readable
format rather than in human-readable form (the ASCII files the original
poster referred to). Even executable files are not necessarily binary; an
uncompiled BASIC program is certainly executable if you have the parser on
your system, but it's not binary; once compiled, however, it becomes binary
because you can no longer just open it in a text editor and read it.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous

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