I have tried to make the argument that the usual system of flags in programming were unary or binary-encoded unary objects. That is nonsense. I don't know what I was thinking.
A unary system is a system of counting. The position of a (one) digit can be ascribed with no meaning. If you begin partitioning counting sticks (for example) by tens (in order to count how many groups of tens that you would have) then you are starting to create a partially mixed system. If the partitioning is done consistently along the lines of integer exponents of some base n then it would be an n-ary counting system. The (standard) flag system in programming is a mixed system. You do not use the bits in counting but you do ascribe the position of a bit so that it has a particular meaning and the bit can take two states. And since you can use the flags in different kinds of ways, the system is not necessarily used in a purely consistent way. Jim Bromer ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
