26 Nov
2018
26 Nov
'18
2:13 p.m.
On 11/26/2018 9:26 AM, Charles Anthony via cctalk wrote:
On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 4:28 AM Peter Corlett via
cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
I say 20 bits needs to be used more often.
Did anything really use all the control codes in ASCII?
Back then you got what the TTY printed.
Did any one ever come up a a character set for ALGOL?
Ben.
On Sun, Nov 25, 2018 at 07:59:13PM -0800, Fred
Cisin via cctalk wrote:
[...]
As I understand it, 36 bits was used as it could represent a signed 10
digit decimal number in binary; the Frieden 10 digit calculator was the
"gold standard" of banking and financial institutions, so to compete in
that market, you computer had to be able to match the arithmetic standards.
-- Charles
Alas, "current" computers use 8, 16,
32. They totally fail to understand
the
intrinsic benefits of 9, 12, 18, 24, and 36 bits.
Oh go on then, I'm curious. What are the benefits? Is it just that there
are
useful prime factors for bit-packing hacks? And if so, why not 30?