On 10/25/2010 1:42 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: > In message <mailman.31.1287517442.2218.python-l...@python.org>, Petite > Abeille wrote: > >> Characters vs. Bytes > > And why do certain people insist on referring to bytes as “octets”?
Because back in the old days bytes were of varying sizes on different architectures - indeed the DECSystem-10 and -20 had instructions that could be parameterized as to byte size. So octet was an unambiguous term for the (now standard) 8-bit byte. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 PyCon 2011 Atlanta March 9-17 http://us.pycon.org/ See Python Video! http://python.mirocommunity.org/ Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
