Information in a File

Since we are dealing with digital computers, the information in the computer system is represented in binary form. Remember the four advantages of binary (from chapter 2):

1. Simple; easy to build.
2. Unambiguous signals (hence noise immunity).
3. Flawless copies can be made.
4. Anything that can be represented in symbols can be represented with patterns of bits.

The last advantage means that a file can contain any type of information that can be represented with symbols, such as:

• numbers (integers and floating point types of any size)
• characters (text files)
• characters with format information (word processor files)
• images
• audio
• program source files ( MyProgram.java, cprogram.c )
• bytecodes ( MyProgram.class )
• machine language ( cprogram.exe )
• many other types