←back to thread

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

(www.open-std.org)
182 points Twirrim | 2 comments | 17 Oct 24 22:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.41s | source
Show context
pjdesno ◴[17 Oct 24 23:31 UTC] No.41874875[source]▶
During an internship in 1986 I wrote C code for a machine with 10-bit bytes, the BBN C/70. It was a horrible experience, and the existence of the machine in the first place was due to a cosmic accident of the negative kind.
replies(6): >>41874970 #>>41875234 #>>41875248 #>>41875733 #>>41875834 #>>41876076 #
1. Isamu ◴[18 Oct 24 03:19 UTC] No.41876076[source]▶
I wrote code on a DECSYSTEM-20, the C compiler was not officially supported. It had a 36-bit word and a 7-bit byte. Yep, when you packed bytes into a word there were bits left over.

And I was tasked with reading a tape with binary data in 8-bit format. Hilarity ensued.

replies(1): >>41876112 #
2. bee_rider ◴[18 Oct 24 03:31 UTC] No.41876112[source]▶
Hah. Why did they do that?