From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 29748 invoked from network); 18 May 2020 08:47:48 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 18 May 2020 08:47:48 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id E38B79C1DE; Mon, 18 May 2020 18:47:45 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF4969C188; Mon, 18 May 2020 18:47:14 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id C16D59C160; Mon, 18 May 2020 18:47:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from vtr.rulingia.com (vtr.rulingia.com [45.77.232.82]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 32D079C15F for ; Mon, 18 May 2020 18:47:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from server.rulingia.com (ppp239-208.static.internode.on.net [59.167.239.208]) by vtr.rulingia.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id 04I8kuJV007882 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Mon, 18 May 2020 18:47:02 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from peter@rulingia.com) X-Bogosity: Ham, spamicity=0.000000 Received: from server.rulingia.com (localhost.rulingia.com [127.0.0.1]) by server.rulingia.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id 04I8korX001468 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Mon, 18 May 2020 18:46:50 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from peter@server.rulingia.com) Received: (from peter@localhost) by server.rulingia.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id 04I8kowx001467; Mon, 18 May 2020 18:46:50 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from peter) Date: Mon, 18 May 2020 18:46:50 +1000 From: Peter Jeremy To: Clem Cole Message-ID: <20200518084650.GA78465@server.rulingia.com> References: <20200515213138.8E0F72D2D71E@macaroni.inf.ed.ac.uk> <077a01d62b08$e696bee0$b3c43ca0$@ronnatalie.com> <20200515233427.31Vab%steffen@sdaoden.eu> <5DB09C5A-F5DA-4375-AAA5-0711FC6FB1D9@ronnatalie.com> <20200516232607.nLiIx%steffen@sdaoden.eu> <065a01d62c68$59b7d890$0d2789b0$@ronnatalie.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="7JfCtLOvnd9MIVvH" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-PGP-Key: http://www.rulingia.com/keys/peter.pgp Subject: Re: [TUHS] v7 K&R C X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" --7JfCtLOvnd9MIVvH Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2020-May-17 16:08:26 -0400, Clem Cole wrote: >On Sun, May 17, 2020 at 12:38 PM Paul Winalski >wrote: > >> Well, the function in question is called getchar(). And although >> these days "byte" is synonymous with "8 bits", historically it meant >> "the number of bits needed to store a single character". 8-bit bytes, 32/64-bit "words" and 2's complement arithmetic have been "standard" for so long that I suspect there are a significant number of computing professionals who have never considered that there is any alternative. >Yep, I think that is the real crux of the issue. If you grew up with >systems that used a 5, 6, or even a 7-bit byte; you have an appreciation of >the difference. I've used a 36-bit system that supported 6 or 9-bit bytes. IBM Stretch even supported programmable character sizes. >DEC was still sort of transitioning from word-oriented hardware (a lesson, >Paul, you and I lived through being forgotten a few years later with >Alpha); The Alpha was byte addressed, it just didn't support byte operations on memory (at least originally). That's different to word-oriented machines that only supported word addresses. Supporting byte-wide writes at arbitrary addresses adds a chunk of complexity to the CPU/cache interface and most RISC architectures only supported word load/store operations. --=20 Peter Jeremy --7JfCtLOvnd9MIVvH Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQKTBAEBCgB9FiEE2M6l8vfIeOACl4uUHZIUommfjLIFAl7CS3JfFIAAAAAALgAo aXNzdWVyLWZwckBub3RhdGlvbnMub3BlbnBncC5maWZ0aGhvcnNlbWFuLm5ldEQ4 Q0VBNUYyRjdDODc4RTAwMjk3OEI5NDFEOTIxNEEyNjk5RjhDQjIACgkQHZIUommf jLIEMw/8D/oUZ9GM6yw9VKP5ck/zmucGTVYSnDDWP+FTB+xfvUdF0FrBjXD/xioU 3WEjr1XrL7+ArGWdftRsuYI270eyDB8F0eJI2TiGxDXK1XIwvlMnIoUiZkjR1h5a XlbDbNSYFuLrew1oXQ8x5T8/hQAe+EJ55ALOuNWM78HhbwiS27AB8gu9SJIwFzcH 2sG+slTINk+o5rYvS9Sr/vLJkH9j7OvMWa7m9DGUidmDOlxwIvGt4+GxYPPzG4bB vDnqtKYb8kPkAMfxsIbJC6fbsqiGXsROk/Y53n6g9eOtnB+iwqAEfraajSQFgxop ulYe3vFhNCiJRF3mtfP/VFZNleBVKWs/fkndgybjJGJJoVdif5fyC7TpeZSqqDdq GqxORqt0/Z+V7X/MmMIisx4K5Cp8h4Y3KAiCebVOq6onQOQrQfgqYpUvoFd8FEZn X5Z/mqsNZsG3Wi+ry6TRB5e58i3+1JeksK6Sc8xeasCRxOZDA8zSpDIu0JCh2UhP S13HJuOlvzYxPZ1+1YBe85UlV4N01ic4oxzrEuy0bRbgA+G33NuiCRFFeRrsNlm3 f773j0l/HOXsdU02HIzcSW3yB7131AhRQZTFc/PS7hxTx0aQq5w/Qr+RxtliGzGN ldQzIynD+zjwOOahv5IxtPZGEIYZ2T+P3fmELO524RVP01gX1+E= =Z1jP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --7JfCtLOvnd9MIVvH--