Actually, decimal comes from decimus meaning 10. So Hexadecimal is a bit of
a misnomer :-)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Sabram [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 3:16 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Steve's Guide to Hexadecimal (was: Re: Binary
> Data/Hexidecimals)
>
>
> Let me do "Steve's Guide to Hexadecimal" to so no one else on this list
> falls asleep over too many misunderstood words. Those how have been
> working in Hex for years, please skip this. Others, you may find this
> interesting.
>
> Hexadecimal -- comes from the latin "Hexa" for sixteen and "decimal"
> meaning number.
>
> English and most of the western and eastern world works off a base 10
> system. "Base" in this case means how many symbols are used to
> represent a number. We use base 10 since this is how many fingers and
> thumbs we have. This is why we call a single symbol for a number a
> digit and that word "digit" is also an anatomy term for a finger or
> thumb.
>
> Digital (there is that word again!) computers are most economically
> based off a binary number system. That is base 2. The most common
> symbols for a base 2 number system is "0" and "1". This number
> represents something going on or off. Early computers it was mechanical
> switches, then vacuum tubes and now, for the past 40 years, transistors.
>
> In the early computer science days, there have been different ways to
> represent computer memory in the quickest and most convenient manner.
> It has been shown that displaying numbers in base 10 to the user is most
> understood. However, 10 is not a multiple of 2 and thus more code
> needed to be written for proper representation. Note: This is how
> printf() came about. To show numbers quicker and not have a sheet of
> paper with 0's and 1's all over it, most systems spit out numbers on
> base 16. That is a multiple of two and takes less code for the symbols
> to be created. This conserved paper for printing and was quicker than
> printf().
>
> Thus technical pros in the computer business work in hexadecimal. An
> example of it is below.
>
> HEX Base 10
> 0 0
> 1 1
> 2 2
> 3 3
> 4 4
> 5 5
> 6 6
> 7 7
> 8 8
> 9 9
> A 10
> B 11
> C 12
> D 13
> E 14
> F 15
> 10 16
> 11 17
>
> For further threads, I highly recommend
> newsgroup:alt.folklore.computers. Many well knowledged individuals that
> knows the history of this business very well that hang on that
> newsgroup.
>
> Hope that answers more questions than it creates!
>
> Steve
>
> Richard Hartman wrote:
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jeannine B. Leggieri [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> >
> > >
> > > This is in regards to the email message that I sent out last
> > > week asking if
> > > anyone knew where I could find out about 0xFFFF and 0xFF. I
> > > know that in
> > > writing HTML code there are such hexidecimals for colors,
> > > such as FFFFFF
> > > (which is white) and 000000 (which is black), and there is a
> > > page that would
> > > tell the person what color it was referring to, such as the
> > > HTML color code
> > > chart. I am trying to locate such a chart in Palm
> > > development, but I cannot
> > > find anything like that anywhere. I was wondering if anyone
> > > could advise me
> > > as to where I may go to find help on this. Any good books
> > > because it does
> > > not seem like there is such a page with the code chart? I
> > > know that it works
> > > differently in Palm development and that they do not
> > > represent colors, but
> > > numbers. It would be helpful if I knew the coding and how it
> > > is used. Can
> > > someone please help? Thanks.
> > >
> >
> > Hmmm... where to start ...
> >
> > Numbers is numbers. In base 16 (hexadecimal) or base 10
> > (good ol' human-friendly decimal) numbers is numbers.
> >
> > What they mean depends upon context. When you are talking
> > about colors, numbers frequently refer to mixing levels of '
> > Red, Green & Blue -- thus 000000 is 00 Red, 00 Green, 00 Blue;
> > which is the absence of all color: hence black.
> >
> > When discussing computer CPUs, numbers frequently represent
> > instructions such as MUL, ADD, MOV -- each instruction has
> > a numeric value, and the numeric value representing a MOV
> > instruction is likely to be different for a Pentium (Wintel)
> > than it is for a Dragonball (Palm).
> >
> > But bear in mind that the -only- thing that computers understand
> > is numbers. These characters I am typing are -also- represented
> > by numbers. The letter 'A' for instance has the numeric value
> > of 65 (... in decimal, $41 in hex).
> >
> > Towards the end of your question you seem to imply that what
> > you are after is information on how to program the Palm. That
> > is a completely different question that what you started out
> > asking ... and I wish I could be certain that that is what you
> > really want to know ... generally you don't program in the
> > machine language (i.e. numbers), so give your initial question
> > I am still not certain what information you are really after.
> >
> > Hexidecimal, display color coding, programming ... your questions
> > are really all over the place ... perhaps because you are trying
> > to interpret what you think you know too much into the questions
> > you are asking.
> >
> > Please, describe your situation and what you want to do. Do you
> > have a program and you want to decode it's data files? Do you
> > want to use display codes to display underlined or bold characters?
> > Do you want to learn how to write programs? Or what?
> >
> > --
> > -Richard M. Hartman
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > 186,000 mi./sec ... not just a good idea, it's the LAW!
>
>
>
