--- On Thu, 12/3/09, J. Alexander Jacocks <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: J. Alexander Jacocks <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: kibimebigibi and Original Mac/UBUNTU > To: [email protected] > Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 1:28 PM > Anyone know of an extant computer > that uses non-8-bit bytes? I > certainly can't think of one newer than the 1970s. A system that almost made it out of the lab was a successor to the Atari 2600 which used 10 bit words. If it's not 8 bits, it's not a byte, it's a "word". 4 bits is a nybble. 8 bits can also be called a word, which happens to be the same length as a byte. 'Course to the non-computer-literate, the idea that a "word" equals a single character or single digit number *is* confusing. Non-extended "low" ASCII uses 7 bit words in 8 bit bytes, with one of the end bits (I forget which) always zero. That was used to reduce storage space and transmission time for ASCII text data by 1/7th since it was safe to assume that one bit was always zero. (And the assumption that the people on both ends were using a language that used the English alphabet.) That's why the BinHex encoding for Macintosh files exists, because in the early years of the Internet, some routers and gateways only passed 7 bits of each byte, which seriously FUBARed any files that were full 8 bit. That problem *should* no longer exist, but you can still find some sites offering Macintosh files in both MacBinary (encoded with 8 bit extended ASCII character set) and BinHex (encoded with "low" 7 bit ASCII character set) which are always larger than MacBinary files. The rationale there was if you could download the MacBinary OK, it would save you on connect time and amount of data transfer, saving you some money when most services charged by the minute and/or by the kilobyte (of 1024 bytes). If you had a 7 bit system between you and where the file was being served, you'd have to download the BinHex version and pay the extra cost to your service provider. If you first downloaded the .bin version and found it corrupted, then you'd have to download the .hqx and end up paying for the extra, but useless, download. Hooray for flat-rate, unlimited download internet! -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
