Sender: nate AT cartsys DOT com Message-ID: <37433B8F.AA2EA708@cartsys.com> Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 15:30:39 -0700 From: Nate Eldredge X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.08 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.5 i586) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: [OT] Re: Portability and size_t type related question References: <374322ea DOT 2462585 AT noticias DOT iies DOT es> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia wrote: > > El día Wed, 19 May 1999 16:31:58 +0200, dlanor AT dds DOT nl (Ronald > Landheer) escribió: > > >>> > > Most people think that byte is a synonym for 8 bits. > >>> > I'm aware of that. But that doesn't make it correct, at least not from > >>> > a 'language-lawyer' point of view. Actually, the equivalence of 8 bits > >>> > being a byte is a rather recent invention, compared to the use of the > >>> > 'byte' in computing. There have been 7-bit bytes, 9-bit ones. 8 bits > >>I think 8 bits is minimum. > >Nope.. six bits is (for as far as I encountered). > > Wrong again. There are still a bunch of 4-bit microprocessors around > there, and again this is just a *practical* limit. You can build 1-bit > byte machines if you want. Not very useful, though. I have a databook for a rather interesting 1-bit microcontroller. -- Nate Eldredge nate AT cartsys DOT com