Re: A Simplified Number System

From: Arnold Victor (arvimide_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 10/26/04 

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 01:24:52 GMT

Sean O'Leathlobhair wrote:

> "Ebenezer T. Squint" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message news:<Hbked.3136$%k.776@pd7tw2no>...
>
>>While picking up the often-neglected work on my conlangs, I was
>>considering the problem of devising a new and easily learned number
>>system. Maybe even a system that would or could be hexadecimal, making
>>it easy to use in computer science.
>>
>>The binary digits of hexadecimal seemed a natural place to start. I
>>began to consider different ways to write four binary digits quickly and
>>recognizably as a single character. This is what I came up with.
>
>
>
> <snip>
>
> Current computers usually operate internally in binary but there are
> exceptions. Nonetheless, binary is likely to continue to be important
> in computers for a long time yet.
>
> Hexadecimal is a lot less special. There is no fundamental importance
> to base 16 in computing. It is used simply as a short hand for
> writing long strings of bits (binary digits). Because 16 is the
> fourth power of two, it is very easy to convert between binary and
> hexadecimal. The use of 16 is convenient to current architecture
> because a byte is 8 bits and hence the value of a byte can be neatly
> represented as two hexadecimal digits.
>
> Hexadecimal was not always commonly used in computing and it will not
> always remain so.

It is commonly used in Unicode, which is of interest to members of this
message-group. I think its usefulness there consists in permitting
four-digit addresses for each cell in the Unicode table of characters.
Macintosh computers come with a "keyboard" named "Unicode Hex Input,"
which enables inserting characters by their hexadecimal address. I have
noticed that many information sources nowadays give both hexadecimal
addresses as well as decimal addresses for a character. Hexadecimal is
more elegant and arguably easier to remember.

> ... 

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