Really stupid PDP assembler question

From: der Mouse <mouse_at_Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
Date: Fri Jun 25 19:17:08 2004

> While this question ask been well answered, it does bring to mind a
> good old trivia question....

> "What significant advantage did octal have over hex notation
> (especially in the late '60s timeframe)?"

Well, I wasn't around then (at least not with respect to computers).
But I'd hazard a few guesses.

- Word lengths that were multiples of 3 were commoner than word lengths
   that were multiples of 4 (of course, some, eg 36 bits, were both).

- Existing devices (eg, nixies) could handle 0-7 better than 0-F.

- Using letters as "digits" ran into human mindset trouble; using
   decimal representation for hex digits runs into bigger trouble,
   using multiple characters per functional digit.

- Humans have trouble with a 16-digit system. (I know I do; I always
   have to stop and pay attention to avoid getting B and D confused.)

How close did I come? :-)

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Received on Fri Jun 25 2004 - 19:17:08 BST