Comment on A Mystery of Unix HistoryparentComments−naniwaduni6yoctal location 033of course this predates the invention of hex, or at least the modern conventional notation for it−kps6yPre-PDP11, DEC had machines with 12, 18, and 36 bit words. Those are all multiples of 3, so octal was more natural. (For the 16-bit PDP11, the instruction format made octal natural.)
Comments
of course this predates the invention of hex, or at least the modern conventional notation for it
Pre-PDP11, DEC had machines with 12, 18, and 36 bit words. Those are all multiples of 3, so octal was more natural. (For the 16-bit PDP11, the instruction format made octal natural.)