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From: Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: is_binary_file()
Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2025 16:05:45 -0800
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scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:
> Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> writes:
[...]
>>Please use the term "null bytes", not "NULL bytes".  NULL is a standard
>>macro that expands to a null pointer constant.
>
> The proper term IMO is 'NUL' byte as defined by ASCII.

That's *a* proper term.  It's not the only one.

Both ASCII and EBCDIC use the term "NUL" for the character value
with all bits set to zero, but C doesn't assume either ASCII or
EBCDIC and doesn't use the name "NUL".  The standard uses the term
"null character", which is technically correct but might not be
ideal to refer to a byte in a file whose contents aren't intended
to represent characters.

I have no problem with the term "NUL", "NUL byte", or "NUL
character", but personally I tend to prefer "null byte", "zero byte",
or '\0'.

[...]

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */