From: jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu   
      
   On 2025-12-31 18:11, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:04:59 -0500, James Kuyper wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 2025-12-24 01:17, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> ...Bytes have to be 8-bit.   
   >>   
   >> Incorrect - the only requirement is that CHAR_BIT >= 8. There are   
   >> real systems where CHAR_BIT == 16. There have been real machines   
   >> where CHAR_BIT==9 would have been the most reasonable option.   
   >   
   > Those are sizes of “characters”, not “bytes” though, are they.   
      
   No. In the C standard, a byte is a unit of measurement for memory. The   
   size of a byte is CHAR_BIT bits, which is implementation-defined. A   
   character is something that you can store in memory. A byte is required   
   to be large enough to store any member of the basic character set of the   
   execution environment. Since the basic character set need only contain   
   96 characters, and CHAR_BIT is required to be >=8, that's not an onerous   
   requirement.   
      
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