Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: The integral type 'byte' (was Re: Suggested method for returning
 a string from a C program?)
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 23:30:45 +0000
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 25/03/2025 19:45, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> On 25.03.2025 19:50, bart wrote:
>> On 25/03/2025 18:18, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>>
>>> If you'd have said 40 years ago, about the time when MS DOS systems
>>> got popular,
>>
>> 1985? That's a bit late!
> 
> I was speaking about MS-DOS systems that got available where I live
> around 1982.

Yes but you were replying to a comment about 'bytes' being commonly 
associated with 8-bit quantities for 50 years. People in computers would 
have been aware of them. You say yourself you used such a system in 1978.

In fact BYTE magazine started in 1975 too, and originally featured such 
8-bit systems.

> Few people could afford to buy the IBM systems. But they
> marked the line where these system got popular here. A non-significant
> but noticeable distribution of these systems could be observed around
> 1984/1985. That's about when "common folks" started to "talk IT".
> 
>> 8-bit processors started around the mid-70s, pretty much 50 years ago.
> 
> One of the first systems I used (around 1978) was a Commodore PET 2001.
> There were (very few) other folks that used the first Apple computers
> (also very expensive equipment here). There was another (I forgot the
> name; it ran the CPM OS) which was affordable, and a bit later came
> the Amiga and the Atari.

In the UK, a Z80 microprocessor chip cost £10 in 1981. Memory £24/KB 
(SRAM) or £6/KB (DRAM). Not cheap, but still affordable for ordinary 
people, compared with the £500,000 my college's mainframe cost in mid-78s.

(Which had 36-bit words, was only word-addresseable and variable-sized 
packed bytes. The new architectures that microprocessors made popular 
were much more practical.)

> One thing I was describing is the two groups; professionals and, say,
> "wannabes". While the first group had a complete view on the scenery
> the latter group's (much more limited) view determined the perception.

I don't have time for such elitism.