bit-widths, was Re: HP Laserjet ..again....

[Ethan Dicks]

On Wed, Sep 22, 2004 at 03:51:09PM -0700, Tom Jennings wrote:
> Paul is absolutely correct -- octet is the UNambiguous word for a
> grouping of 8 bits. I also believe came from the telecom world, it's
> certainly in heavy use there (also most internet RFCs).

I believe that is because many of the guys making early contributions
had their feet firmly planted in the 36-bit world (with 6 6-bit chars
per machine word).  An 'octet' is unambiguously 8 bits.

-ethan

-- 
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S      Current South Pole Weather at 22-Sep-2004 23:40 Z
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Ethan.Dicks at amanda.spole.gov     http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html