v087mxgb@ubvmsa.cc.buffalo.edu (Shawn E Thompson) (03/14/91)
Hi, could someone please explain to me why .COM files are binary and why .EXE files are hex....and why they both work (ie...is the Hex EXE files translated on the fly into biinary???) also,,, when programming in assy, do I make binary files or hex files ??? Ive done quite a bit of programming, at the high-level (as opposed to machine level assembly languages), so technical answers are what I really need. thanks in advance st
richard@murna.asis.unimelb.edu.au (Richard Begg) (03/15/91)
v087mxgb@ubvmsa.cc.buffalo.edu (Shawn E Thompson) writes: >Hi, >could someone please explain to me why .COM files are >binary and why .EXE files are hex....and why they both >work (ie...is the Hex EXE files translated on the fly into >biinary???) [stuff deleted] >thanks in advance >st Er... Um... correct me if I am wrong here, but aren't binary and hex (or even decimal for that matter) just different means of displaying a given number. It all depends on how you choose to look at the data. --- Richard. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Richard Begg (richard@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au) | | Programmer with ASIS, University of Melbourne. |
kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) (03/16/91)
In article <65157@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v087mxgb@ubvmsa.cc.buffalo.edu writes: > >could someone please explain to me why .COM files are >binary and why .EXE files are hex.. >also,,, when programming in assy, do I make binary files Since you asked for "technical" answers, I hope mine is not too simple ;-). The fact of the matter is that EVERYTHING that is stored in the computer is really binary. The translation only occurs on output so that dumb humans can make some use of the data in a (relatively) convenient manner. HEX is just a handy (?) method of representing the binary data. It can also be represented in Octal, etc. but the source file is still binary. Even text is really stored in binary and is translated into readable characters upon output using a "numbering system" or translator called ASCII. But you probably knew all that already.......... The answer that you are probably really looking for is that the operating system program that loads COM and EXE files and executes them is slightly different; in effect, a different translator. This does NOT mean, however, that COM files are binary and EXE files are HEX. -- ======================================================== Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965