alt Hacker NewsIt used to be much more common. In the 70s there was a lot of collective hesitance to use hex with its strange letter digits. Octal was the compact representation of choice.
It used to be much more common. In the 70s there was a lot of collective hesitance to use hex with its strange letter digits. Octal was the compact representation of choice.
Also, some very old computers had 36-bit words. Word sizes on modern computers are virtually always powers of 2, but it hasn't always been that way.
And octal is more convenient for output via 7-segment LEDs and for input via numeric keypads.