Thread: i have a question

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Depending on your OS, not a damn thing. Otherwise, usually just how they handle the writing of a new line.


Quzah.

Unix is a system that treats the modes the same way. Windows/DOS is not.

To your computer there is no difference between binary and text files. A file is a collection of bytes ( numbers between 0 and 255 ).

Files are called "text" when all bytes in that file can be interpreted as letters and accordingly form a coherent text that can be read in an editor. Files are called binary, when the information consists in parts or completely of data that cannot be interpreted as text. If you open such a file in an editor, it will only show gibberish.

The difference in binary and text mode in C/C++ is the line feed character(s). Each system has it's own way of marking the end of lines in text files. On Windows it's 2 characters ( \r\n ) on Unix it's only one ( \n ). If you open a file in binary mode, you will read and write it, as it is. No translation will take place. If you open a file in text mode, the system will interpret your input/output and add missing characters. It will replace a single \n with \r\n when writing to a Windows system and it will replace a \r\n with a single \n when you read it. In other words, in text mode, you always have a \n as line terminator in your programs, while on disk, it's system specific. The specifics are added behind your back in text mode.