[PD] a little ot: creative commons

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Fri, 16 Jun 2006, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:

> An application is a binary, and the source code is all the files needed 
> to produce that binary given a set of tools.

What's a "binary" ?...

the word "binary" was subverted to mean "non-text" where it's assumed that 
text is some version of ASCII. However, so-called "binaries" contain a 
segment called "text" which is native machine code (just ask /usr/bin/size 
about it...)

if the application is a text file, then is it really an application?... 
and then, can that text file be the source code at once?

if the thing called source code is made of text but has been generated by 
some tool, is it still possible to call it source code?

What if the source file is not ASCII-based? (e.g. Microsoft's BASIC or 
IRCAM's jMAX)

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| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 - http://artengine.ca/matju
| Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC Canada