> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Wirt Atmar

> James Clark writes (innocently enough and as an afterthought):
>
> > (words by definition are the size [number of bits] used by the
> current CPU)
>
> Although this has almost nothing to do with James' reply, James'
> comment is a bit of mythology that has become a pet peeve with me.
> It is historically inaccurate -- and has only become more so with
> each new generation of geeks' retelling it.

[historical explanation of words, bit, bytes, and nibbles, deleted]

> However, somewhere along the line, somewhere between the evolution of
> microprocessors and the infusion of communications technology
> into computers, the definition of a "byte" got stuck at 8-bits and
> a nibble at  four. All of this is an abomination before the Lord, a
> complete corruption of traditional terminology, and for the
traditionalist,
> is as sad as HP's shedding its original businesses in a meager attempt
> to impress a few stockbrokers.

First of all, thank's for the history lesson Wirt. As usual I enjoyed
reading what you wrote, and I learned something.

Having said that, I guess I am glad that some misguided (and potentially
confused) "geeks" decided to fix the size of byte (and a nibble for
that matter).

The world is confusing enough without everthing changing, in every
dimension at the same time. I am happy to see at least on unit of
measure stay constant. [Though I could see some advantage in changing
the definition of a pound or an inch...it would save me some running! :)]

If we could just get some agreement on some other of this stuff,
things might get even clearer (though I am not sure that is good):

* Sector size - 256 bytes, 4K, ???
* Page size - 1K, 4K, ???
* Mega - is that 1,000,000 or 2**20?
* Giga - is that 1,000,000,000 or 2**30?

As far as "HP's shedding its original businesses in a meager attempt
to impress a few stockbrokers" goes, I am not sure how I feel. I have
quite a bit of HP stock, so I hope it works! Part of me will miss
being associated with HP's roots. I kind of feel like the test and
measurement spinnoff desreves to keep the HP name and we should
be the ones looking for a new moniker!