Octets calculation?

[Erik Max Francis]

"Greg Ewing (using news.cis.dfn.de)" wrote:

> I thought the C standard used the word "char" for
> that, not "byte".

The C Standard uses the terms _char_ and _byte_ interchangeably.  It
defines byte to mean the smallest atomically addressable chunk of memory
on the system.

> If DSP people really use the word "byte" that
> way, they're utterly barking, IMO. It's just too
> confusing for words. (Or should I say octet-groups?-)

As with most computer science terms, there is no authoritative meaning
to the term _byte_.  Some use it to mean smallest addressable unit of
space on an architecture (which I find the most useful definition); some
use it to mean the smallest chunk of data in a stream; some defined it
to be the same as the native character (like C); and some just define it
to mean the same thing as octet.

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