🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1139933150.15676234@ortel.org> Paul_Long@ortel.org (Paul
Long) writes:

|> This is a common misunderstanding. A byte, in Standard C, is not an 8-bit
|> unit of
|> storage:

In this, the standard is only following normal technical usage.  A
byte has never been defined as 8 bits, but rather the smallest
addressable size, when that size is less than an word.  In fact, the
very first use of byte was not for an 8 bit entity.

(This information comes out of a previous discussion of the meaning of
byte, which I didn't save, which is why I don't know how many bits
were in the original byte, nor what machine it was.  The jargon file
will, however, collaborate my pretention that a byte is not always 8
bits.)

The correct word for a (must-be exactly) 8 bit unit is an octet.  This
is the word normally used in data comm's, precisely for this reason.
(If the protocol specifies octets, you had better send 8 bits, even if
you hardware bytes are 9 bits.)
-- 
James Kanze         Tel.: (+33) 88 14 49 00        email: kanze@gabi-soft.fr
GABI Software, Sarl., 8 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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