Really stupid PDP assembler question

derMouse: You win the grand prize! The actual devices that prompted it however were printers! A printing calculator could be adapted to produce hardcopy. These were in (relatively) common use and available. "Most" systems used binary for lamps/leds so nixie tubes for non decimal values were not predominant. As you know the use of text in computing [for entry/display] came later. David. >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org >>> [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of der Mouse >>> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 8:17 PM >>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts >>> Subject: Re: Really stupid PDP assembler question >>> >>> > While this question ask been well answered, it does bring >>> to mind a >>> > good old trivia question.... >>> >>> > "What significant advantage did octal have over hex notation >>> > (especially in the late '60s timeframe)?" >>> >>> Well, I wasn't around then (at least not with respect to computers). >>> But I'd hazard a few guesses. >>> >>> - Word lengths that were multiples of 3 were commoner than >>> word lengths >>> that were multiples of 4 (of course, some, eg 36 bits, >>> were both). >>> >>> >>> - Using letters as "digits" ran into human mindset trouble; using >>> decimal representation for hex digits runs into bigger trouble, >>> using multiple characters per functional digit. >>> >>> - Humans have trouble with a 16-digit system. (I know I >>> do; I always >>> have to stop and pay attention to avoid getting B and D >>> confused.) >>> >>> How close did I come? :-) >>> >>> /~\ The ASCII der Mouse >>> \ / Ribbon Campaign >>> X Against HTML mouse(a)rodents.montreal.qc.ca >>> / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B