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C++ proposal: There are exactly 8 bits in a byte

(www.open-std.org)
182 points Twirrim | 8 comments | 17 Oct 24 22:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.413s | source | bottom
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cyberax ◴[17 Oct 24 23:27 UTC] No.41874839[source]▶
But think of ternary computers!
replies(1): >>41874847 #
1. dathinab ◴[17 Oct 24 23:28 UTC] No.41874847[source]▶
Doesn't matter ternary computers just have ternary bits, 8 of them ;)
replies(2): >>41874880 #>>41874912 #
2. AStonesThrow ◴[17 Oct 24 23:32 UTC] No.41874880[source]▶
Supposedly, "bit" is short for "binary digit", so we'd need a separate term for "ternary digit", but I don't wanna go there.
replies(2): >>41875125 #>>41875189 #
3. mathgenius ◴[17 Oct 24 23:35 UTC] No.41874912[source]▶
Ternary computers have 8 tits to a byte.
replies(1): >>41875195 #
4. bryanlarsen ◴[18 Oct 24 00:10 UTC] No.41875125[source]▶
The standard term is "trit" because they didn't want to go there.
5. epcoa ◴[18 Oct 24 00:22 UTC] No.41875189[source]▶
The prefix is tri-, not ti- so I don’t think there was any concern of going anywhere.

It’s tricycle and tripod, not ticycle.

6. tbrownaw ◴[18 Oct 24 00:24 UTC] No.41875195[source]▶
Should be either 9 or 27 I'd think.
replies(1): >>41875221 #
7. epcoa ◴[18 Oct 24 00:28 UTC] No.41875221{3}[source]▶
Why can’t it be 8?, the fact that it’s a trit doesn’t put any constraint on the byte (tryte ? size). You could actually make it 5 or 6 trits (~9.5 bits) for similar information density. The Setun used 6 trit addressable units.
replies(1): >>41876513 #
8. jolmg ◴[18 Oct 24 05:07 UTC] No.41876513{4}[source]▶
Might be advantageous to collect trits in powers of 3, like how bits are collected in powers of 2.

For example, if you want to address a trit in a tryte of 8 trits, you can use 2 trits for that, but you'll have a value left over. Seems a bit cleaner if trytes hold 9 trits.