Why Can’t Text Editors Properly Display Binary Files?

If you really want to dig into binary files, you should use a hex editor rather than a text editor. Hex editors show the binary data in a way that's easier to understand by converting bits into hexadecimal numbers. This approach is much more useful than trying to interpret the raw binary data as text.

It's also worth mentioning that there are editors that can display binary data. They typically do this in hexadecimal, which is much easier for humans to understand than a long string of 0s and 1s. So, while text editors are built for text, hex editors cater specifically to binary files.

Text editors are designed for text, not binary data. When you open a binary file, the editor tries to interpret the 1s and 0s as characters, which usually results in garbled output. The reason you see characters like '@' is because the text editor is assuming the data has readable text, but it doesn't. Instead of displaying the raw binary, it displays whatever it thinks those bits represent in text format.

The main point is that all files, including text files, are essentially binary. Text editors expect files to contain text, so they interpret the bits according to character encoding like ASCII. But with binary files, the bits don't correspond to printable characters, leading to strange symbols or 'garbage' when opened in a text editor.

To clarify things further, even though all files are essentially sequences of 1s and 0s, not every combination corresponds to something meaningful in a text context. Text editors work by displaying characters based on binary values that are part of the standard ASCII table, which doesn't apply to binary executables or files. That's why they often appear as nonsense when viewed as text.