31 Jan
2012
31 Jan
'12
11:36 p.m.
On 31 Jan 2012 at 21:36, Dave wrote:
Any thing longer than "8". The constant
CHAR_BIT as defined in
"limits.h" should say how many bits/byte...
Digging around on the web a bit, I see claims of a couple of C
compilers for the 60-bit CDC 6000/7000/Cyber70/170 systems, but I've
never run into one in person.
Initially, this was all uppercase OS software using 6 bit characters
where A=1, B=2,...Z=26, 0=27....; later, lowercase support was added
(and printing slowed down) by using 12-bit characters based on the 6-
bit set. Ones' complement hardware, too. It must have been a
nightmare to get any sort of portability out of it.
--Chuck