Re: A byte for the year
Actually, most business software at the time often implemented integers including dates as Packed Binary Coded Decimal, storing one decimal number in a 4 bit nibble, so two digits in a single 8 bit byte.
This was the case for a lot of COBOL and RPG programs, two of the languages most often used for business applications.
Many machines actually included instructions to do arithmetic in packed BCD, including s/360, VAX, Burroughs, and even the 68000 (this list comes from Wikipedia, but I knew about s/360 and VAX).
Other systems using 12, 24 and 36 bit words would store 3, 6 and 9 decimal digits in their word. Some of the 24 and 36 bit word length systems also used 6 bit characters, with 4 or 6 characters encoded in a single word.
Honestly, youngsters today, No sense of history! They think x86 is the be-all and end-all of processors.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
