> I am not so clued up on the 'base 2' and 'base 8' stuff. > Care to explain that a little?
base 2 is binary, base 8 is octal. We normally use base 10 decimal. The base refers to the biggest number that can be represented by a single digit. (Actually one less than the base because we start with zero!) Thus in base 10 we have digits 0,1,2...,8,9 In base 8 we have 0,1,2...,6,7 and in binary 0,1 When we need a number bigger than a single digit can represent we add another column, so 9+1 = 10, that is 1 ten plus zero units. Similarly in base 8 & + 1 = 10 ie one eight and no units and in base 2, 1+1 = 10 ie one two and zero units. So the same principles hold as we are used to in decimal but they just kick in at different points. But these are just representational issues, the underlying value is the same in each of the following cases: 9 - base 10 11 - base 8 1001 -base 2 You might also find base 16 - hexadecimal, or more commonly just hex. There the numbers between 10 and 15 are represented by letters: 0,1,....9,A,B,C,D,E,F So the decimal number 27 is represented in hex as 1B And to make it clear which base is being used computer languages adopt a simple convention of prefixing the digit in ambiguous cases: 012 = implies 12 in base 8 (because of the leading 0 0x12 = implies 12 in hex because of the leading 0x 12 = implies decimal 12, no prefix. HTH, A web search on 'number bases' or 'binary numbers' should throw up much more detailed info Alan G. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor