Re: binary executable
"Victor Bazarov" <v.Abazarov@comAcast.net> writes:
If one would be strict in that regard, then only bootstrap program
is truly executable, and everything else is data, _especially_ scripts,
which are but the source data to the corresponding interpreter...
To be executed or interpreted is a /r?le/ of an entity - not a
property. A r?le of an entity depends on a context of an
entity, while a property only depends on the entity.
A processor is an interpreter implemented in hardware -
otherwise ?execution? and ?interpretation? is the same.
Off the topic ?c++?: While ISO/IEC 14882:2003(E) does not use
the term ?binary? for executable files, the Java Language
Specification, Third Edition indeed does use this term
?binary? for ?executable?.
For example,
?Loading refers to the process of finding the binary form
of a class or interface type with a particular name,
perhaps by computing it on the fly, but more typically by
retrieving a binary representation previously computed
from source code by a compiler, and constructing, from
that binary form, a Class object to represent the class or
interface.?
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/execution.html#12.2.