On: raising the semantic level of a program

[ben]

On 6/28/2020 2:32 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

> Why is byte-granularity in addressing a necessity?  It's only an issue
> if you have instructions that operate directly on byte quantities in memory.
> 
Why have bytes in the first place then? A packed string does count here. 
IBM started this mess with the 360 and 32 bits, and everybody 
followed.Is Fortran I/O the BIBLE on character data.
IBM never seemed even to follow one character set encoding even with the 
similar machines like the IBM 1130.

> --Chuck
> 
We don't have opcode space (now that we are 32 bits) to give a byte 
LOAD/STORE but you can buy extra hardware for string functions seems to 
have been the marketing idea back then.

Since punchcards I think had a 16 bit encoding, lack of byte data
was not big problem. Who used paper tape on a 360?
Ben.