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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!watmath!kpmartin
From: kpmartin@watmath.UUCP (Kevin Martin)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: C needs BCD (ANSI People: Please Lis
Message-ID: <9772@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 21:18:25 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.9772
Posted: Thu Nov  8 21:18:25 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 05:14:09 EST
References: <106@ISM780B.UUCP> <273@cubsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: kpmartin@watmath.UUCP (Kevin Martin)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 22

>I don't know about a BCD type, but it would be nice to have a %b
>input and output format for use in printf and scanf.
>{philabs,cmcl2!rocky2}!cubsvax!peters            Dr. Peter S. Shenkin 


The thing I find amusing is that, when this particular discussion started
with the mention of BCD, I immediately thought of the funny 6-bit character
set that some Honeywell mainframes use (6 of these fit in a 36-bit word,
giving 6-char monocase externals, but that is another story). Reading on,
I determined that the author was discussing packed decimal.

The Bell labs GCOS C compiler (and the B language, C's ancestor) have the
construct `abcdef` to generate a BCD character constant, up to six characters.
The 'printf' in the B library has a %b format which prints strings of BCD
characters.

So the question arises: Does a '%b' format mean:
Packed decimal
BCD character set (or another alternative set, as appropriate)
Binary (base 2)
   ?
               Kevin Martin, UofW Software Development Group