Text File Oriented Programming

Working with Shell Scripts and C programming from the background of a C++ and Java programmer, I've noticed the classic pre 1980s paradigm of record based design. Where instead of encapsulating objects with methods, a text file can hold a list of elements, where each row entry contains columns of attributes. I know older OOP languages like Smalltalk have introduced the idea of message passing. I also realize Text File oriented programming isn't an established term, but I've come across the pattern too many times to see it as something under looked in our modern OOP world. Has anyone else come across this or similar designs, and if so, what are more proper terms?