Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: The integral type 'byte' (was Re: Suggested method for returning
 a string from a C program?)
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 15:40:56 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <vs13lp$1vfs8$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vrd77d$3nvtf$2@dont-email.me> <868qp1ra5f.fsf@linuxsc.com>
 <vrdhok$47cb$2@dont-email.me> <20250319115550.0000676f@yahoo.com>
 <vreuj1$1asii$4@dont-email.me> <vreve4$19klp$2@dont-email.me>
 <20250319201903.00005452@yahoo.com> <86r02roqdq.fsf@linuxsc.com>
 <vrh1br$35029$2@dont-email.me> <LRUCP.2$541.0@fx47.iad>
 <vrh71t$3be42$1@dont-email.me> <vrh9vh$3ev9o$1@dont-email.me>
 <vrhct4$3frk8$2@dont-email.me> <20250320204642.0000423a@yahoo.com>
 <vrhphb$3s62l$1@dont-email.me> <87iko3s3h2.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com>
 <vrrvgp$1828d$1@dont-email.me> <874izi82a4.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com>
 <vrttin$321rm$1@dont-email.me> <vrus18$3srn9$1@dont-email.me>
 <vs0jrf$1hb4h$1@dont-email.me> <vs0mt3$1jp5l$1@dont-email.me>
 <vs0pgn$1look$2@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 15:40:57 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="b589444e6227646d97a9085ef1be5cd7";
	logging-data="2080648"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19mi4ZTS1WIMcp3hZkNfwLY"
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101
 Thunderbird/45.8.0
Cancel-Lock: sha1:vcZT1/2KoCXg2Vf+MIINo4E4NFg=
In-Reply-To: <vs0pgn$1look$2@dont-email.me>
X-Enigmail-Draft-Status: N1110
Bytes: 2782

On 26.03.2025 12:47, David Brown wrote:
> 
> The word "bit", on the other hand, is often said to come from "binary
> digit" or "binary information digit". 

Yes, "binary digit".

> Personally, I think it is a lot
> simpler - it's the smallest usable bit of information you can have.
> Saying it is a "binary digit" just makes it clearer how big a bit you have.

I think we should note that bit is used in two ways; it's first of all
the _unit_ of information in information theory, and then it's used as
a sort of "tangible" entity. And here (DE) we have different writings,
entities are written in capitals (with a plural where necessary), like
"The registers comprise either 1 Bit or 8 Bits.", and the unit written
in singular and lowercase "The data rate is 8 bit per second."[*]

Jnais

[*] Note: that's just a lexical transcription to English, not meant as
if that would be correct English (it isn't).