Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Rod Pemberton" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Recommendation of a Forth to embed in C Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 20:25:32 -0400 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 35 Message-ID: References: <85ca46a5-03d8-41ad-ab7e-8e5c3b781e48@googlegroups.com> <88c99e6b-9fb4-45fb-a724-eb03a673ceec@googlegroups.com> <53547407$0$25056$e4fe514c@dreader37.news.xs4all.nl> NNTP-Posting-Host: CNsg4fVcCsvs3UaOgZtQCw.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:29756 On Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:19:02 -0400, rickman wrote: > On 4/20/2014 9:27 PM, Albert van der Horst wrote: >> In article <88c99e6b-9fb4-45fb-a724-eb03a673ceec@googlegroups.com>, >> wrote: >>> On Saturday, 19 April 2014 09:55:05 UTC+1, Rod Pemberton wrote: >>>> A byte by definition is exactly 8-bits. Bytecode uses only one byte >>>> to represent all instructions. With a 1:1 mapping of instructions to >>>> integer values, how can you have more than 256 words using only 8-bits >>>> per instruction? >>> >>> No, a byte is not by definition 8 bits (though I agree people often >>> talk as if it were, which can be confusing) >> >> If I'm buying me next 4 Gbyte chip and there are only 7 bits in >> a byte, I sure as hell I'm going to complain. > > If you want 8 bits, then you should specify an octet. That is what the > ITU does. > > I have seen bytes be anything from 6 bits to 12. :) > Yes, C etc redefines bytes to not be 8-bits. However, those are *NOT* bytes by definition. Bytes are *EXACTLY* 8-bits. Bob Bemer and Hugh McGregor Ross created ASCII and EBCDIC. They defined a character of exactly 8-bits. They were the first to create standardized character sets. Teletypes prior to that had numerous proprietary, incompatbile character of different bit sizes. The actual term "byte" for 8-bits was created by Dr. Werner Buchholz, at least according to Bob Bemer. Rod Pemberton