Byte sizes (was Re: 2.8M 3.5' floppy

[der Mouse]

> [h]ere in California, the cultural and computing center of the
> universe (you're suppose to laugh at this point), a "byte" was always
> 8 bits, half-word was 16 bits (or a short-word) and a word was 32
> bits (or a long-word).

This must be a different California from the one that developed 4.3BSD
for the VAX, a machine on which a byte is 8 bits, a word 16, and 32 is
a long (or more formally longword) - terminology inherited in large
part (in toto?) from the PDP-11 and for some reason I do not understand
not updated to match the VAX.

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