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An ordinary file holds data. This data can either be ASCII text (consisting of characters from your keyboard), or binary (generally a machine generated file). An example of an ASCII text file would be some program source code listing; an example of a binary file would be the command ls. The unix operating system supports both random and sequential access on any ordinary file. The majority of all your file experience will be with ordinary files. Ordinary files are usually created using text editors, compilers, and other unix commands.
Files can use almost any character. Normally files that begin with a
`.' do not get displayed by commands that list files like ls.
These dot files are very important. Most programs use files like
`.cshrc', `.newsrc', `.login' and `.emacs' to alter
the initial configuration of the program. You will see more later about
dot files as you read about each program.
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