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Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #14336
| Date | 2012-05-06 11:36 -0400 |
|---|---|
| From | Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> |
| Newsgroups | comp.lang.java.programmer |
| Subject | Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) |
| References | (8 earlier) <tok1p7dl1cp7ipt59ilg4d0uk6jf20q07s@4ax.com> <20638428.276.1334951022461.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@pbcsx5> <56h3p7phgturh7hkno6k1q9pfohfdi5b6j@4ax.com> <4fa5c494$0$294$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <jo5qec$rkl$4@localhost.localdomain> |
| Message-ID | <4fa69a8a$0$291$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> (permalink) |
| Organization | SunSITE.dk - Supporting Open source |
On 5/6/2012 8:22 AM, Martin Gregorie wrote: > On Sat, 05 May 2012 20:23:45 -0400, Arne Vajhøj wrote: >> If you search programming fora for problems relating to: >> - max int values >> - integer division >> - FP inaccuracy >> - octal then I think >> you will see that octal is not a common problem compared to other >> language features. >> > I've always out that down to hardware changes. Way back when machines > using 6 bit ISO characters (ICL 1900 mainframes, Elliott scientific > boxes) I used to use octal all the time and didn't recall ever meeting > hex, which I first noticed after the switch to byte-oriented > architectures. I think that made sense: the 1900 used a 24 bit work that > split into 4 6-bit characters so octal works well for bit representations > of both words and characters. Hex would be far less useful. Same with CDC NOS. > OTOH Octal is a bad fit with a byte-oriented architecture for exactly > thew same reasons. > > So, back when C was specified, it made sense to have both hex and octal > bit representations because it was being used on both byte and word > oriented hardware (didn't some early DEC kit use word and character > lengths that were multiples of 3 rather than 4?) but now, with the almost > universal adoption of byte-oriented architectures there's little reason, > other than historic, to use octal notation. True. But the history is still there. Arne
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Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-05-05 20:23 -0400
Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-05-06 12:22 +0000
Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-05-06 11:36 -0400
Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2012-05-06 17:10 +0000
Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-05-07 09:43 -0700
Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-05-07 18:17 +0000
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