Talk:EOF

I'm pleased that the article explains both points of view, but the term 'metadataists' sounds rather absurd. Use of terms ending 'ist' like this tend to be rather divisive anyway (Are you an EOFist or a Metedataist?). Perhaps it could be reworded. --Safalra 18:27, 22 Oct 2005 (GMT)


 * It's snappier than saying "the aforementioned persons in favor of the view that EOF is not a symbol but a way of expressing metadata". Everyone will know what it means. If it bothers you, perhaps you could reword it? Remember, be bold. --Graue 21:15, 22 Oct 2005 (GMT)

I totally disagree that EOF has any part in a programming language (unless the spec specifically says so). The EOF character is one way for an OS to signal the end of a data stream, but not the only one. This has nothing to do with the abstract concept of a programming language which is not dependent on the implementation details of contemporary operating systems.


 * Yeah, I'm starting to come around to the metadataist way of thinking. --Graue 16:57, 23 Oct 2005 (GMT)

Also, why does the article say that languages using images as source code is not dependent on EOF? Surely there is no difference between an image and a text-file when it comes to EOF. They are both byte-streams that are (usually) terminated by an EOF. --Rune 16:19, 23 Oct 2005 (GMT)


 * Most graphic formats have the width and height stored in the header. --Graue 16:57, 23 Oct 2005 (GMT)


 * Very true, but now we're down to implementaion details again, which I don't think is relevant... --Rune 19:11, 23 Oct 2005 (GMT)

Resurrecting this ... EOF is metadata, it's also a symbol. The problem is the definition of a symbol. Probably the definition here is visual, what you can see is a symbol. Of course even that is too vague, because you can see lots of symbols, where does one end an the next begin? Take this piece of text; the whole thing could be considered a symbol. That's unusual, but each word that's a symbol. But then each character is also a symbol. However, you can go even further. The screen you're looking at is made of pixels, some are black, some are white(ish) each pixel is a symbol ... it's all binary.

So to answer the question. Is EOF a symbol ... well, that's an implementation detail. Rdebath (talk) 17:28, 24 August 2014 (UTC)