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

On 2025-03-26, Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> wrote:

On 26/03/2025 10:10, David Brown wrote:

But the fact that "octet" was a standardised term for 8 bits prior to
the standardisation of the term "byte", does not change the fact that
the term "byte" was standardised as 8 bits - in common computing usage
by at least 40 years ago (though I still think 50 years ago is
reasonable), and in official international standards by at least 30
years ago.

>
I was taught - probably wrongly - that byte was a contraction of
'binary-eight'.

That legend is entirely apocryphal. How we can tell is that the word
byte was used long before the world settled on almost universally
equating it with 8 bits.

We do not require any urban legends or etymological hypotheses in this
area, because the origins of bit and byte are precisely known. They were
coined by specific people in computing, who documented the origin.

Bit stands for "binary digit". This contraction was invented in
1948 by Claude Shannon.

Bit is also the past participle of the verb "to bite", inviting
puns about biting.

The word "byte" was invented by Werner Buchholz, an employee of IBM,
in 1956. He explained it as bing "coined from bite, but respelled to
avoid accidental mutation to bit".

The exact origin of "nybble" is not as clear. Obviously, a nibble
is a small or partial bite, so how it related to "byte" is clear.
Just the when and who is unclear.  It may have been coined in 1958
by a David B. Benson, a professor emeritus at Washington State U.
If that is so, at the time he must have just had become familiar with
Buchholz's byte term. Since it was the same year "byte" was coined,
it's unlikely that someone independently derived "nybble" from "byte"
earlier than Benson. So I'm tending to accept Benson's hypothesis
that he originated "nybble".


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