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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2025 01:00:25 -0000 (UTC)
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On 26 Feb 2025 19:22:19 -0500, Rich Alderson wrote:

> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
> 
>> On Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:47:15 -0700, Peter Flass wrote:
> 
>>> The idea of defining different-sized bytes is a real plus.
> 
>> What they meant by "bytes" was really just "bitfields".
> 
> Look up the original definition of "byte" in the signal processing
> literature, and you'll find that "arbitrary bitfield" is the original
> meaning ...

Nobody uses it in that sense any more. Just as nobody says “awful” to mean 
“awesome”.