Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.c++ > #13254

Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this?

Show all headers | View raw

scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:

> Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid> writes:
>>On 1/10/2012 12:14 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
>>> "Alf P. Steinbach"<alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com>  writes:
>>>> On 10.01.2012 09:30, Nick Keighley wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> scarey thought. There are people writing device drivers that don't
>>>>> know hex?
>>>>
>>>> Why not use octal? Saves you typing an "x". After all, the creators of C
>>>> were quite happy with octal for expressing low level bit patterns.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Assuming you're not having us on, you can't evenly divide 8, 16, or 32 by three.
>>>
>>> Octal made sense in the 12-bit and 36-bit worlds from which the creators of C
>>> hailed.
>>
>>Are you saying that 040 is more difficult to read than 0x20?  Just 
>>checking...
>
> No, I'm saying that I can look at 0x12345678 and visually determine which
> bits are set in which bytes.   It's much more complicated for 02215053170.

Whereas for me it's the opposite. 

But wait -- what you have memorized, to decode the hex, is a superset of
what I know to decode the octal.  How, then, can it be "much more
complicated" to decode the octal?  It involves decoding more digits, so
I can't argue against "slightly more work" or something like that.  But
the principles are identical, and the tables needed in memory are a
subset of the hex tables. 

> On the other hand, when I was writing PAL-D code for the pdp8, 4 digit octal
> numbers worked just fine due to the 12-bit word.

Yep, that's where I learned to do octal.  Actually toggling in the RIM
loader is where I learned to do octal.

-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

Back to comp.lang.c++ | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? BCFD36 <bcfd36@aol.com> - 2012-01-09 17:11 -0800
  Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2012-01-10 02:23 +0100
    Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? legalize+jeeves@mail.xmission.com (Richard) - 2012-01-10 06:05 +0000
      Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2012-01-10 07:12 +0100
        Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? BCFD36 <bcfd36@cruzio.com> - 2012-01-09 22:35 -0800
      Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Gareth Owen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2012-01-10 06:58 +0000
    Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-01-10 21:58 +0000
      Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@dd-b.net> - 2012-01-10 16:46 -0600
      Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2012-01-10 23:41 +0000
        Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-01-11 00:19 +0000
          Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? "MikeWhy" <boat042-nospam@yahoo.com> - 2012-01-10 21:53 -0600
      Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2012-01-11 15:14 +0000
        Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid> - 2012-01-11 11:46 -0500
  Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-01-10 14:30 +1300
    Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? BCFD36 <bcfd36@cruzio.com> - 2012-01-09 21:32 -0800
      Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Paavo Helde <myfirstname@osa.pri.ee> - 2012-01-10 01:01 -0600
        Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? BCFD36 <bcfd36@cruzio.com> - 2012-01-09 23:11 -0800
          Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? yatremblay@bel1lin202.(none) (Yannick Tremblay) - 2012-01-11 10:23 +0000
            Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? yatremblay@bel1lin202.(none) (Yannick Tremblay) - 2012-01-11 10:37 +0000
        Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-01-10 00:30 -0800
          Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2012-01-10 16:31 +0100
            Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2012-01-10 17:14 +0000
              Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Victor Bazarov <v.bazarov@comcast.invalid> - 2012-01-10 15:11 -0500
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Richard <rgrdev_@gmail.com> - 2012-01-10 21:45 +0100
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? hanukas <jukka@liimatta.org> - 2012-01-11 00:04 -0800
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? hanukas <jukka@liimatta.org> - 2012-01-11 00:15 -0800
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-01-10 21:51 +0000
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? "Bill Davy" <Bill@SynectixLtd.com> - 2012-01-11 08:30 +0000
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? "Fred Zwarts \(KVI\)" <F.Zwarts@KVI.nl> - 2012-01-11 09:40 +0100
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? hanukas <jukka@liimatta.org> - 2012-01-11 06:50 -0800
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2012-01-11 17:28 +0000
                Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@dd-b.net> - 2012-01-11 13:28 -0600
            Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-01-11 17:51 +0000
            Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-01-12 05:40 -0800
              Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? BCFD36 <bcfd36@cruzio.com> - 2012-01-12 20:42 -0800
          Re: Coding Style Question - Is there any sane reason for doing this? hanukas <jukka@liimatta.org> - 2012-01-10 23:50 -0800

csiph-web