On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 1:06 PM, Kevin Cozens <kevin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Le 04/10/2017 à 15:51, Elle Stone a écrit : > >> So a byte is 8 times a bit? For people like me who can never remember the >> difference between a byte and a bit, is there a one-sentence explanation >> for why there are bytes *and* bits? >> > > Perhaps a food analogy might help you remember the difference between byte > and bit. > I believe this is the proper analogy. 1 binary digit is 1 bit: B_inary dig_IT. Values are 0 and 1. 4 bits is a nybble, and has the values 0 thru 15 (2^4-1). These are coded as 0-9,A-F in hexadecimal (6+10). 8 bits or 2 nybbles are a byte, with the values 0-255 (2^8-1), coded as 00 thru FF. Also called an octet.* In C a stray backslash may cause you to accidentally run into octal numbers, being the 3 bits 0-7 representing base-8, but these are best left in the dustbin of history. Chris * Today, a byte being 8-bits is mostly by convention. In the dark ages of computing there were also 6-bit bytes (2 octals, being 2 of the 3-bit octal numbers 0-7, not the 8-bit octets) and other odd combinations that are also best forgotten. _______________________________________________ gimp-developer-list mailing list List address: gimp-developer-list@xxxxxxxxx List membership: https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer-list List archives: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list
