Re: UNIX/Linux text files

[Adam Funk <a24061@yahoo.com>]

On Tuesday 20 April 2004 15:50, John Hasler wrote:

> Adam Funk writes:
>> Yes, but -T and -B tests in Perl know the difference [between text
>> and binary files].
> 
> They guess, using heuristics.  Both return true on an empty file.

I know that any *n*x file is just a list of bytes. [1]  I was jokingly
making the point that while there isn't an *inherent* difference in the
files, there is generally a practical difference in what you do with
them.


[1] Eric Raymond, "The Art of UNIX Programming", chapter "What UNIX Gets
Wrong":
"Unix files have no structure above byte level."
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s04.html