From: dnomhcir@gmx.com   
      
   anthk  writes:   
      
   > On 2025-04-04, Lawrence D'Oliveiro  wrote:   
   >> On 02 Apr 2025 16:45:38 GMT, Aharon Robbins wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Octal was used heavily on the PDP-11, if you used the assembler.   
   >>   
   >> All DEC’s systems used octal heavily, prior to the VAX. That’s when they   
   >> started using hex.   
   >>   
   >> All the DEC machines prior to the PDP-11 had word lengths that were   
   >> multiples of 3 (12, 18, 36), so octal worked nicely. Even though the   
   >> PDP-11 was a 16-bit machine, fields in its instruction format were still   
   >> designed to line up with octal digits.   
   >   
   > Why? "octal" means base eight ( as 'ocho' in Spanish, same Latin root).   
   >   
   > forth>3 8 lcm .   
   >   
   > 24   
   >   
   > Not very fitting for a 36 bit machine except for opcodes.   
      
   Octal numbers are 3 bits per digit, and 36 divides by 3.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)