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

Hmm, I wonder if any modern languages can work on computers that use trits instead of bits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer

It'd just be a translation/compiler problem. Most languages don't really have a "bit", instead it's usually a byte with the upper bits ignored.

Possible, but likely slow. There's nothing in the "C abstract machine" that mandates specific hardware. But, the bitshift is only a fast operation when you have bits. Similarly with bitwise boolean operations.