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From: kimcm@olamb.UUCP (Kim Chr. Madsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k,comp.std.internat,comp.arch
Subject: Re: How do you say "byte" in French?
Message-ID: <181@olamb.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 7-Dec-86 14:16:27 EST
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Posted: Sun Dec  7 14:16:27 1986
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> 	I don't know French, but it seems pretty clear that the phrases "1
> megabyte" and "1 megaoctet" are equivalent.  Is "octet" the proper French
> translation of of the English "byte"?  Assuming that it is, doesn't that
> presuppose that a byte is 8 bits?  We have enough trouble here teaching
> people that a byte doesn't have to be 8 bits -- if you call it an "octet",
> it must be even more confusing: "the VAX has 8-bit octets, but the PDP-10
> has 9-bit octets."

The word "octet" is clearly defined as a bitgroup of 8 bits, which is why
it is called an octet. This is done to avoid the confusion that the word
"byte" brings along. You can only answer the question "How long is a byte ?"
by saying: Well, look in the manual for your machine architecture, but normally
it's about 8 bits long.

Talking about n-bit octets are ridiculous.
Talking about n-bit bytes makes sense!

					Kim Chr. Madsen