Octal was also helpful when working with 24 bit color. -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Macarty, Jay {PBSG} Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 6:32 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: what is Hex? When I worked on the HP 3000, we used octal notation to represent a 24 bit value in 8 octal digits (3 bits per octal number). Can't recall if that was because of the register size, the addressing base, the word boundary, all the above, or what. -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dale Leavens Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 3:01 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: what is Hex? You use two octal numbers, one for the upper and one for the lower nibble of a byte. Frankly I have never really used octal notation for anything serious. There may well be other uses. ----- Original Message ----- From: <yarringt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:37 PM Subject: Re: what is Hex? > I'm confused. I get using a hex number to represent the upper and lower > nibble of a byte, but how could you > use an octal number to represent the upper and lower nibble, or a 4-bit > register value? -Debbie > > Dale Leavens wrote: >> Close, >> >> Hex (hexadecimal) is base 16 and it is used because of the architecture >> of computers where a byte is made up of 8 bits. Rather than represent the >> position of 1s and 0s as an 8 bit binary number you can represent the >> contents of the byte with a Hexadecimal number. Octal (base 8) was and is >> sometimes also used to represent the upper or lower nibble of a byte or >> the value of a 4 bit register. >> >> Hope this informs. >> . > > __________ > View the list's information and change your settings at > //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: > 269.20.8/1289 - Release Date: 2/20/2008 10:26 AM > > __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ NOD32 2892 (20080221) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind