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.txt
Plain Text File
A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists within a computer file system.
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History & Origin
Text files have been around since the very beginning of computing. They correspond to the concept of valid input for teletypewriters and line printers.
Internal Structure
A pure stream of character data. The specific binary representation depends on the character encoding used (ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16, etc.). It contains no formatting info (bold, italics) or metadata.
Advantages
- Universal: Readable by any computer and human.
- Small size: Zero formatting overhead.
- Future-proof: Will always be readable.
Disadvantages
- No formatting: Cannot support rich text, images, or layout.
- Encoding ambiguity: Opening a file in the wrong encoding can result in readable garbage (mojibake).
Common Use Cases
Documentation (README files)
Source code
Logs
Notes
Configuration
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