Mike Meyer wrote: > Yup, it's probably futile - most people don't care about portability > or precision, and will use "byte" to mean "8-bit byte".
Nor will this be an issue in Python. Maybe an inset paragraph on some footnote of a bit of documentation on a wiki page. > Standards can't get away with the sloppy usage that's common > practice. So they wind up providing definitions for words that may > seem to contradict or repeat common usage, or using uncommon words > with a precise meaning in place of a common word that usually, but not > always, has that meaning. As Guido succinctly wrote to me: > ...octet is not, and never will be a technical term for > Python. It is a silly standards body compromise. While I think "silly" might have been an overstatement, I think the point is clear enough. In the context of Python, bytes will be 8 bits, and arguments about the appropriateness of that definition are silly. Joel _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
