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From: rjd@tiger.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Size of SysV "block" (really: b
Message-ID: <142700011@tiger.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Jul-87 16:46:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: tiger.142700011
Posted: Sat Jul 18 16:46:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Jul-87 21:04:24 EDT
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Nf-From: tiger.UUCP!rjd    Jul 18 15:46:00 1987


>> O.K., I'll byte.  (oops, pun initially unintended.)   A byte IS eight bits!!!
>> Maybe you are thinking of a word??  And a nibble is four bits, and a gulp is
>> sixteen bits (or was this a mouthful?), etc....
> 
> 	No, no, no, a thousand times NO!  A byte is NOT NECESSARILY 8 bits!
> .... more on this....

  You sound convincing, and I would like to think that you were right, but I
still have my doubts.  The way you are describing a byte:

"....A byte is simply some collection of contigious bits taken as a unit. Often
a byte is that number of bits which most comfortably holds a single character
in the machine's native character code, but not always.  Often the number of
bits in a byte is dictated by the underlying machine architecture, but that's
not a hard and fast rule either."

  This is a word!!  On the machines I most commonly work on, even at the
hardware design level, the word size is 32-bit (true 32-bit), and have
memory sizes specified in bytes - 8-bit bytes!!  The machine uses ASCII,
as do most except IBM, and ASCII is based on seven bits.  So there would
be no reason to use a byte meaning 8-bits unless it WAS so.

  I HAVE AN IDEA!!! Lets look it up........ (turning pages on my Webster's):

byte - n. [arbitrary formation, < BITE ] a string of binary digits, usually
    eight, operated on as a basic unit by a digital computer.

word - ...... 8. an ordered combination of characters carrying at least one
    meaning that is stored in one location in a computer and that is regarded
    as a unit when stored or transferred by the computers circuits.

  I guess you are right, yet I think that common usage dictates a byte be eight
bits.  A very good point you have brought up, though, as I thought I KNEW a byte
to ONLY be eight bits, and there seems to be a point of ambiguity here....

Randy