Digital Dictionary

F

File Formats

Jean-Yves Jeannas

AFUL, Université de Lille, France

File format: definition

A computer file is either the digital representation of an object (text, image, sound, video, etc.) or a collection, a census of documents, objects, people, places, etc. It refers to the concept of a “list” which existed long before computer science. The latter has changed its scope by making it possible to “translate” the real world into digital data and store a considerable volume of information that can be reused in various fields of application. This process, which is still unknown to a large part of the public sphere, led to the creation of the French “law on information and freedom” in 1978, in order to protect citizens from the liberticidal use of data. Therefore, a few elements are necessary to understand, on the one hand, the technological principle that governs the computer file and, on the other hand, the more complex strategic and societal issues surrounding the notion of computer file format.

Technically speaking, computer files refer to familiar elements that we handle every day and contain our texts, photos, music, etc. We usually think of them as organized documents associated with our office layout. This same principle governs the computer file: it is a matter of arranging documents in files that are themselves deposited in file systems, placed in directories that are themselves organized. They have a name that can indicate the nature of the content and an extension ...