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

On 25/03/2025 19:45, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

On 25.03.2025 19:50, bart wrote:

On 25/03/2025 18:18, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

>
If you'd have said 40 years ago, about the time when MS DOS systems
got popular,

>
1985? That's a bit late!

 I was speaking about MS-DOS systems that got available where I live
around 1982.

Yes but you were replying to a comment about 'bytes' being commonly associated with 8-bit quantities for 50 years. People in computers would have been aware of them. You say yourself you used such a system in 1978.
In fact BYTE magazine started in 1975 too, and originally featured such 8-bit systems.

Few people could afford to buy the IBM systems. But they
marked the line where these system got popular here. A non-significant
but noticeable distribution of these systems could be observed around
1984/1985. That's about when "common folks" started to "talk IT".
 

8-bit processors started around the mid-70s, pretty much 50 years ago.

 One of the first systems I used (around 1978) was a Commodore PET 2001.
There were (very few) other folks that used the first Apple computers
(also very expensive equipment here). There was another (I forgot the
name; it ran the CPM OS) which was affordable, and a bit later came
the Amiga and the Atari.

In the UK, a Z80 microprocessor chip cost £10 in 1981. Memory £24/KB (SRAM) or £6/KB (DRAM). Not cheap, but still affordable for ordinary people, compared with the £500,000 my college's mainframe cost in mid-78s.
(Which had 36-bit words, was only word-addresseable and variable-sized packed bytes. The new architectures that microprocessors made popular were much more practical.)

One thing I was describing is the two groups; professionals and, say,
"wannabes". While the first group had a complete view on the scenery
the latter group's (much more limited) view determined the perception.

I don't have time for such elitism.