"In traditional file processing, the structure of data files is embedded in the application programs, so any changes to the structure of a file may require changing all programs that access that file. By contrast, DBMS access programs do not require such changes in most cases. The structure of data files is stored in the DBMS catalog separately from the access programs. We call this property program-data independence."
The following text is taken from the book Fundamentals of the Database system. I didn't get the part about the traditional file processing can somebody please explain(an example would be appreciated)?
I'll give you a simple example.
Microsoft Excel used to save its files in a proprietary binary format. In practical terms, this meant that you could only work on those files using Excel.
But now, Excel supports an open document format in XML that is text-based, and allows other programs like the OpenOffice SDK to interact with them. So you no longer need to rely on Excel to work with open document format Excel files.