<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>IIRC, a bunch of Ye Olde systems used 6-bit bytes. And I think 36-bit ints were used in a few architectures, but don't quote me on that.</div><div id="AppleMailSignature"><br>- Dave Sweeris</div><div><br>On Jun 17, 2016, at 22:48, Félix Cloutier via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8">Out of curiosity, can you name an architecture that doesn't use 8-bit bytes?<br class=""><div class="">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none;" class="">Félix</span>
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<br class=""><div style=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Le 17 juin 2016 à 13:01:33, Daryle Walker via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org" class="">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> a écrit :</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">When I first looked into Swift, I noticed that the base type was called “UInt8” (and “Int8”) and not something like “Byte.” I know modern computers have followed the bog standard 8/16/32(/64) architecture for decades, but why hard code it into the language/library? Why should 36-bit processors with 9-bit bytes, or processors that start at 16 bits, be excluded right off the bat? Did you guys see a problem with how (Objective-)C(++) had to define its base types in a mushy way to accommodate the possibility non-octet bytes?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">BTW, is there an equivalent of CHAR_BIT, the number of bits per byte, in the library? Or are we supposed to hard code an “8”?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">
<div style="letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">— </div><div class="">Daryle Walker<br class="">Mac, Internet, and Video Game Junkie<br class="">darylew AT mac DOT com </div></div>
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