Scheme language standardization process
On 07/02/2012 07:08 AM, Robert Smith wrote: > I don't think the Scheme standard should equate "byte" with "octet". Okay, I say this as an old-skool programmer who actually remembers machines with bytes of other lengths, and even remembers the original formal definition of byte as "a unit of memory containing the same number of bits as the distance in bits between two consecutive memory addresses." I remember 36-bit words containing four nine-bit bytes, and all the rest of that, and I used to grind my teeth too when people used byte to mean 8-bits regardless. But that's over now. Nobody, but nobody, is still using that old definition. In fact, the definition of byte as 8 bits, regardless of machine addressing conventions, is now firmly established by ISO/IEC 80000-13. The same standard gives us 'kibi'. 'mebi', 'tebi', etc prefixes for powers of 1024, which I'm still getting used to but appreciate for specificity. It was too fundamental to leave as a hardware convention, so they didn't. Even the architects of new machines where the distance between two consecutive memory addresses is 16 bits, refer to it as two bytes. Interestingly, the rationale section in ISO/IEC 80000-13 specifically cites understanding among technical people who rightly expect the use of the common technical term 'byte' with a standard meaning, and any supposed ambiguity of the term 'byte' casting confusion on the meanings of many standards already published in which the term byte is used specifically to refer to 8-bit entities. 'octet', which was originally proposed for exactly eight bits, never caught on outside of the telecom industry apparently, and is no longer recommended. So for the same reason that a DSL network bridge which does absolutely no modulation or demodulation is now a 'modem', a 'byte' is forevermore accepted specifically as a unit consisting of exactly eight bits. The world moves on and language evolves. Even technical language. Bear _______________________________________________ Scheme-reports mailing list Scheme-reports@x http://lists.scheme-reports.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/scheme-reports