Re: The integral type 'byte' (was Re: Suggested method for returning a string from a C program?)

On 26.03.2025 11:29, David Brown wrote:

 
In the UK at least, home computers were wildly popular from the start of
the 1980's, when they became much cheaper, had usable BASIC languages,
and a wide supply of games.  DOS and CP/M systems were pretty much
business only - home computers hugely outnumbered such systems.
Virtually all home computers were 8-bit - though most users would have
little knowledge of that.

I basically agree. Only that those geeks and nerds who privately
bought such computer systems here were mostly informed about the
technical details.

(Ah, now I remember the system name I forgot in a previous post;
it was a "Schneider" PC with CPM. And some toy called Sinclair ZX
or so.)

>
In 1978 a Commodore Pet 2001 costs 2000 DM (I think it must have been
around 500 US$ back these days). Few people could afford to buy one.
And most people had no use for it anyway. Only nerds with sufficient
income could buy one to play with it.

 
The Pet was early and expensive - my father had one at home in
connection with his job.  (I never got to program it, but I was six at
the time.)

I had the opportunity that there was a huge office equipment shop
nearby; they sold the successor (CBM 3016, 3032, IIRC) and since
there were almost no customers around they didn't mind that I sat
on those systems to "play" with them. So there was no pressing
need for me to buy one.

But the market exploded a few years after that with a wide
variety of home computers.  By the mid eighties, a large proportion of
households in the UK with teenage boys had a home computer of some sort.

Janis