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   comp.misc      General topics about computers not cover      21,779 messages   

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   Message 20,992 of 21,779   
   Aharon Robbins to bencollver@tilde.pink   
   Re: On Binary Digits   
   02 Apr 25 16:45:38   
   
   From: arnold@skeeve.com   
      
   In article ,   
   Ben Collver   wrote:   
   >On 2025-04-01, Richmond  wrote:   
   >> Ben Collver  writes:   
   >>   
   >>> To cope with this problem some workers have devised their own   
   >>> conventions of writing and pronouncing such numbers. A system in use   
   >>> at the Bell Telephone Laboratories would set off the above figure in   
   >>> groups of three digits:   
   >>>   
   >>>     11,110,101,000   
   >>>   
   >>> and would then pronounce each group of three (or less) separately as   
   >>> its decimal equivalent. The first binary group, 11, is the equivalent   
   >>> of the decimal 3; the second, 110, of the decimal 6; the third, 101,   
   >>> of the decimal 5. (000 is zero in any notation.) The above would then   
   >>> be read, "Three, six, five, zero."   
   >>   
   >> This is called Octal, is it not.   
   >   
   >Yes this is called Octal.  I only recall using octal in two places:   
   >C escape sequences (\033) and Unix file mode bits (755), both   
   >coincidentally from Bell.   
      
   Octal was used heavily on the PDP-11, if you used the assembler.   
   --   
   Aharon (Arnold) Robbins 		arnold AT skeeve DOT com   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   

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