Files are representations of resources as well. Some of these are mapped to data...

williamcotton · on July 16, 2013

Think about files in the context of a filesystem and an operating system. You can move them around, read to them, write to them, execute them...

Now think about what the browser runtime can do with "files". Well, next to nothing, because the browser doesn't have access to a filesystem.

For a browser to communicate with a filesystem it has to do so through HTTP and only in a very limited way.

boomlinde · on July 16, 2013

> You can move them around, read to them, write to them, execute them...

That functionality depends entirely on the file system and the file in question, as much as the operations available on an HTTP resource depends on the verbs that the resource implements and how it implements them.

Also, a file system will typically not execute your files. Nothing stops you from executing an HTTP resource in the same manner. Say,

    <script type="text/javascript.js" src="bla/bla.js">

or

    curl http://bla.com/bla.sh | bash

> Now think about what the browser runtime can do with "files"

Using the standard HTTP verbs, you can read, write, create and delete resources.