John W. Colby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Thu May 19 20:36:18 CDT 2005
I said "No" because a byte is commonly known as 8 bits, although from the links you posted and some other sites I found it appears that a byte was variously 7, 8 and 9 bits. It is definitely NOW commonly known as 8 bits. Previous to the links you posted I had never seen anything other than 8 bits known as a byte, which is why I said I knew what a byte is. Apparently I only knew the latest and most common (at least now) definition of byte - 8 bits. I must admit I have been using byte to refer to 8 bits since the 70s when I bought my first computer based on a z-80. Before that everything was octal. When I said "No, it was groups of 3 bit octal numbers." the "it" I was referring to was your "9 bit byte". I was attempting to point out that probably the "9 bit byte" was in fact a "set" of 3 octal numbers, not a byte. Apparently in that specific case, the 9 bits was indeed considered or called a byte. There is a lot of strange stuff out there. I apologize for the massive confusion and for ever doubting your 9 bit byte. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause: http://folding.stanford.edu/ -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Stuart McLachlan Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 9:12 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: RE: Integers vs. Long Integers Was: RE: [AccessD] Global Variable On 19 May 2005 at 19:57, John W. Colby wrote: > >You are calling your 3 bit group a Byte > > I never called "my" 3 bit group a byte. Where did I say that? In > fact it most assuredly isn't "my" three bit group. > I said: "Yep, 9 bits to a byte on quite a few early machines." and you replied: "No, it was groups of 3 bit octal numbers." To me that certainly looks as though you were saying that it was a 3 bit byte. If not, I don't see any point in your remark and why you used the "No" -- Stuart -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com