I am still amazed that a program on programming has yet to mention Hexadecimal, especially when t...

[G+_Kelvin Saggers]

I am still amazed that a program on programming has yet to mention Hexadecimal, especially when they first explained Binary . . .

 

I know many years ago when computers first came on the scene ( am I showing my age or what) and i first dabble in machine code and early programming languages eg  Pascal, Forth, Lisp, C,  and simpler ones such as BASIC, Pilot ect. all machine code was shown in Hex.

 

 

[G+_Wesley Kerfoot]

well if you understand binary and decimal then hex (and octal) are pretty easy...so maybe they thought people can figure it out on their own.

[G+_Kelvin Saggers]

Being a program called Coding 101. The ones learning code for the first time would not even know Hex even existed and represented 16 bits (0-9,A-F) or that octal was far less useful, being only 8 bit, for representing Binary numbers.  Octal was mainly kept alive because big Blues (IBM) Dinosaur main frame programers used it back then. I wont get into an argument however as to why it should have been noted, because i realise they have a limited time each episode to cover the topic of that show. 

 

For trivia buffs - some American and  Mexican tribal languages use the octal numbering system not decimal because they count using the spaces between their fingers  and thumbs rather than the fingers and thumbs themselves. 

 

Nuff Said

[G+_Lee Crocker]

Perhaps if they do a segment on assembly or C for the Arduino or something low-level like that it might be worth learning about hex.

[G+_Larry Weiss]

Wesley Kerfoot Hex notation is unusual (as compared with binary, octal and decimal) because you have to assign an extra 6 characters to represent (in decimal form) 10, 11, 12,13, 14 and 15.  That takes a while to get used to.   The usual convention makes numbers like ABCD and DEADBEEF  possible.

[G+_Kelvin Saggers]

Any system other than decimal is for most people a different way of thinking as most of us we taught numbers to the base of 10 since an early age. But whole nations where also taught numbering systems along side this for example the old Australian & English currency based on 12. So people can and do learn to think in different numbering conventions and adapt to others, like when Australia for example moved to Decimal  not only for currency but weights and distance numbering conventions etc.

 

I only mentioned Hex because it was to me at least at that time when machine code, and machine coding sheets where the norm, just about all were noted in Hex that is binary 0000 0000 was 00, 0000 0001 was 01 through to 1111 1111 which was FF.   If nothing else it was easier to visualise and took up less space, when you had pages of code to wade through either on a screen or paper and as i said i felt it was worth a mention. Actually its still used extensively today in memory/device addressing etc to represent a binary number, one only has to look at a BIOS screen to see it still in use.

 

Fast forward to today and most people these days code in high level languages and code sheets are more like text files.  Once one learns the languages rules and syntax, and starts thinking in those terms. They start becoming proficient in that language, some more so than others, like with any language. 

 

I think we have flogged this particular horse to death so I feel it's time to let it rest in peace. As I also previously stated i understand the time constraints placed on the program slot on Twit TV and I am beginning to be sorry i even raised the point.

 

Oh one last Trivia morsel - aside from English measures and currency and our calendar, the zodiac etc being base on 12 the Chinese traditional weights system was based on the base 16  hexadecimal  (hex) system.

 

 

Definitely NUFF SAID