I am having trouble understanding what a binary file is. I know that it isnt literally a "binary" file. Thats about all I can understand.
Binaries can contain any type of data. They have multiple uses.
As for executable binaries, you have binaries vs scripts, and if you would make the dumb generalisation of the century, you could say that binaries are low level and scripts are high level.
There is nothing to understand about a binary basically, it's a block of data that is not text or script or any other fixed format, although you can use binaries in scripts or have script or plain text data in binaries lol.
In short, if you have a bunch of data for a particular use, you can put it in a binary so that you know where it is and call upon it when necessary for whatever purpose you'll need it.
From what I have read and just by pondering, binary files are binary but they're not. Like the number 255 in actual binary is(picking a random ones just for example I know that they are not the real ones...well I don't think they are) is 00000010 00000101 00000101. But in a binary FILE it is 11111111. I know how text operates in general. So to me, a binary file seems like a hybrid between text and actual binary. Is that the correct thought process? I know that a binary file, from what I have read, requires much more care and attention than a text file.
I think there is some real confusion here. 00000010 00000101 00000101 is binary for the individual digits 2, 5 and 5 not the whole number 255 which is 11111111. At its most basic, think of a binary file, be it program code, a image, a sound whatever, as a format that is stored in a way for a computer to understand and process, not for a human to read and process.
That's bullshit. A text file is basically a binary file, too. Text files just have a specific format (e.g. ascii, utf8, ...) which means that they may contain numbers in a specific range (0-127 for ascii) everything else is garbage.
Guys, any file stored digitaly is a binary file, BUT, a binary compared between differing OS choices would seem to fit the bill as to the question asked.,..
Nope, a text file even viewed in its raw binary form is quite readable to a reasonably skilled human. You could argue that a extremely talented human could also read a binary exe or image, that takes a hell of a lot more skill.
Anyway, the OP seems pretty confused differentiating a binary file from binary numbers which is why I tried to simplify it for him/her.
I know that 00000010 00000101 00000101 is the individual numbers. That is how the computer stores the number 255. I was just making the analogy between actual binary(what the computer stores) and a binary FILE. The difference between binary and text seems blurred to me. I know that text uses ASCII codes for each character.
No no no! Binary files do exist, they are different to "normal" files, but yes any file, normal, or binary are always stored as binary.
Binary files usually contain multiple data types. Data types other than strings and characters are stored in internal format and cannot be displayed in a meaningful way in a text editor (which can only display Unicode and ASCII). You need to know the organisation of the binary file to be able to read it.
The file extension for binary files is ".bin".
I didn't say you can't read a text file, I just said that basically everything is a binary file.
Rule of thumb: If you open it up in notepad/vim and it's made up of stuff you can understand, it's a text file. If it's made up or random characters that make no sense, it's a binary file.