On 10/25/2010 2:36 PM, Terry Reedy wrote: > On 10/25/2010 2:33 AM, Steve Holden wrote: >> 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. > > As I remember, there were machines (CDC? Burroughs?) with 6-bit > char/bytes: 26 upper-case letters, 10 digits, 24 symbols and control chars.
Yes, and DEC used the same (?) code, calling it SIXBIT. Since their systems had 36-bit words it packed in very nicely. 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
