Talk:String (computer science): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:51, 16 January 2017

Revision as of 17:26, 24 April 2017

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In order to make way for moving [[Draft:String]] to article space to take the place as the primary topic, I've posted a proposal at '''[[Talk:String#Requested move 16 January 2017]]''' to move the disambiguation page currently at "[[String]]" to "[[String (disambiguation)]]". Your input would be helpful to establish a common consensus on whether or not this move, or something else, should be done. I look forward to your thoughts on the matter. [[User talk:The Transhumanist|<i>The&nbsp;Transhumanist</i>]] 22:50, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

== String length ==

In section '''String datatypes'''/'''Representations'''/'''Null-terminated''' the IBM 1401 word-mark terminated string is discussed.

:Somewhat similar, "data processing" machines like the [[IBM 1401]] used a special [[Word mark (computer hardware)|word mark]] bit to delimit strings at the left, where the operation would start at the right. This bit had to be clear in all other parts of the string. This meant that, while the IBM 1401 had a seven-bit word, almost no-one ever thought to use this as a feature, and override the assignment of the seventh bit to (for example) handle ASCII codes.

That seventh bit idea could not have been implemented. The wordmark bit is hardware implemented. The MCW ('''M'''ove '''C'''haracters '''W'''ordmark) instruction for instance moved variable length fields terminating on the word mark. Numeric or alpha were treated no different. The Honeywell H200 H1200 H3200 and H4200 all had MCW instructions. Arithmetic operations also used wordmark field demarcation. The Honeywell computers had 8 bit memory having 6 data, a word mark and item mark bits.

[[User:Steamerandy|Steamerandy]] ([[User talk:Steamerandy|talk]]) 17:26, 24 April 2017 (UTC)