With the introduction of multimedia we have seen new formats appear, and modifications to
older formats made, that allow executable instructions to be stored within a file format. These
instructions are used to direct multimedia applications to play sounds or music, prompt the userfor information, or display other graphics and video information. And such multimedia display
programs may perform these functions by interfacing with their environment via an API, or by
direct interaction with the operating system. One might also imagine a truly object-oriented
graphics file as containing the code required to read, write, and display itself.