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 25642 invoked from network); 3 Feb 2021 20:09:48 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 3 Feb 2021 20:09:48 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id EAC2B9C9F9; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 06:09:42 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 895EB9C0A7; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 06:09:16 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 4FBB49C2E5; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 06:09:12 +1000 (AEST) Received: from nsstlmta23p.bpe.bigpond.com (nsstlmta23p.bpe.bigpond.com [203.38.21.23]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 1433F9C9AD for ; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 06:09:07 +1000 (AEST) Received: from smtp.telstra.com ([10.10.24.4]) by nsstlfep23p-svc.bpe.nexus.telstra.com.au with ESMTP id <20210203200905.TDRU13959.nsstlfep23p-svc.bpe.nexus.telstra.com.au@smtp.telstra.com> for ; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 07:09:05 +1100 X-RG-Spam: Unknown X-RazorGate-Vade: gggruggvucftvghtrhhoucdtuddrgeduledrgedvgddufedvucetufdoteggodetrfdotffvucfrrhhofhhilhgvmecuuffpveftpgfvgffnuffvtfetpdfqfgfvnecuuegrihhlohhuthemucegtddtnecunecujfgurhepfffhvffujgfkfhgfgggtsehmtddtredtreejnecuhfhrohhmpeffrghvvgcujfhorhhsfhgrlhhluceouggrvhgvsehhohhrshhfrghllhdrohhrgheqnecuggftrfgrthhtvghrnhepieegteeivdevfeffudekhfegleduveejkedtgfefudekhfekleelvdejheetfeefnecukfhppeduuddtrddugedurdduleefrddvfeefnecuvehluhhsthgvrhfuihiivgeptdenucfrrghrrghmpehhvghloheprghnvghurhhinhdrhhhorhhsfhgrlhhlrdhorhhgpdhinhgvthepuddutddrudeguddrudelfedrvdeffedpmhgrihhlfhhrohhmpeeouggrvhgvsehhohhrshhfrghllhdrohhrghequceuqfffjgepkeeukffvoffkoffgpdhrtghpthhtohepoehtuhhhshesthhuhhhsrdhorhhgqe X-RazorGate-Vade-Verdict: clean 0 X-RazorGate-Vade-Classification: clean X-RG-VS-CLASS: clean Received: from aneurin.horsfall.org (110.141.193.233) by smtp.telstra.com (5.8.420) id 5FE6CD140ADE1890 for tuhs@tuhs.org; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 07:09:05 +1100 Received: from aneurin.horsfall.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by aneurin.horsfall.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id 113K95dC088023 for ; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 07:09:05 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from dave@horsfall.org) Received: from localhost (dave@localhost) by aneurin.horsfall.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id 113K94Ur088020 for ; Thu, 4 Feb 2021 07:09:05 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from dave@horsfall.org) X-Authentication-Warning: aneurin.horsfall.org: dave owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2021 07:09:04 +1100 (EST) From: Dave Horsfall To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <202009202026.08KKQ2x6137303@tahoe.cs.dartmouth.edu> <20210202234703.GH4227@mcvoy.com> <20210203001900.GI4227@mcvoy.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.21.9999 (BSF 287 2018-06-16) X-GPG-Public-Key: http://www.horsfall.org/gpgkey.pub X-GPG-Fingerprint: 05B4 FFBC 0218 B438 66E0 587B EF46 7357 EF5E F58B X-Home-Page: http://www.horsfall.org/ X-Witty-Saying: "chmod 666 the_mode_of_the_beast" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; BOUNDARY="1483753691-1556846559-1612382850=:70858" Content-ID: Subject: Re: [TUHS] reviving a bit of WWB 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: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. --1483753691-1556846559-1612382850=:70858 Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=UTF-8; FORMAT=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Content-ID: On Wed, 3 Feb 2021, Peter Jeremy wrote: > I'm not sure that 16 (or any other 2^n) bits is that obvious up front. > Does anyone know why the computer industry wound up standardising on > 8-bit bytes? Best reason I can think of is System/360 with 8-bit EBCDIC (Ugh! Who said that "J" should follow "I"?). I'm told that you could coerce it into using ASCII, although I've never seen it. > Scientific computers were word-based and the number of bits in a word is > more driven by the desired float range/precision. Commercial computers > needed to support BCD numbers and typically 6-bit characters. ASCII > (when it turned up) was 7 bits and so 8-bit characters wasted ⅛ of the > storage. Minis tended to have shorter word sizes to minimise the amount > of hardware. Why would you want to have a 7-bit symbol? Powers of two seem to be natural on a binary machine (although there is a running joke that CDC boxes has 7-1/2 bit bytes... I guess the real question is why did we move to binary machines at all; were there ever any ternary machines? -- Dave --1483753691-1556846559-1612382850=:70858--