Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Harnden 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 11:02:59 +0000 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 11 Message-ID: References: <868qp1ra5f.fsf@linuxsc.com> <20250319115550.0000676f@yahoo.com> <20250319201903.00005452@yahoo.com> <86r02roqdq.fsf@linuxsc.com> <20250320204642.0000423a@yahoo.com> <87iko3s3h2.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <874izi82a4.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> Reply-To: nospam.harnden@invalid.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:03:00 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="4872acf262bfbdffd36e7f3fe766d4c0"; logging-data="1696949"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19rlHivv63IvUiWlbTjJnh4p4W2NbSLByI=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:OYPp7Ob+DtuagY1Zhxn1p0yqft4= Content-Language: en-GB In-Reply-To: On 26/03/2025 10:10, David Brown wrote: > But the fact that "octet" was a standardised term for 8 bits prior to > the standardisation of the term "byte", does not change the fact that > the term "byte" was standardised as 8 bits - in common computing usage > by at least 40 years ago (though I still think 50 years ago is > reasonable), and in official international standards by at least 30 > years ago. I was taught - probably wrongly - that byte was a contraction of 'binary-eight'.