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

On 25/03/2025 21:16, Keith Thompson wrote:

David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> writes:
[...]

Thus pretty much any programmer in the last 50 years sees "byte" as
synonymous with 8-bit octet, including C programmers, and for the last
30 years or so it has been the ISO standard definition of the
term.

 What ISO standard definition are you referring to?  The ISO C standard
certainly doesn't define a "byte" to be 8 bits.  I'd be surprised if any
other ISO standard did so.
 

I haven't read the relevant standards (they cost a lot of money, and I doubt if they are particularly exciting reading), but Wikipedia refers to several - basically the standards covering units of measurements and technical terms used in science, mathematics, engineering, etc.
The C standards are the exception here, not the rule.  (But they predate the ISO standardisation of the term, as far as I can see.)