Since when does a disk drive decide what is and is not supposed to be treated as text vs binary data? The application author who decides which flags to use with open() does that, or the ftp client user does that by using the bin option *which exists*. The the drive subsystem never ever decides that.
No one answered the question about the sewing machines which also used these drives. "AFAIK "good programming practices and principles" are suggestions and recommendations, not laws." Indeed. 1) I never said anything else. 2) Why is a "good practice" good in the first place? For a reason, not because god said so or something. Something is good or bad because of the harm it lessens or increases.
