octal
<mathematics> Base 8. A number representation using the digits 0-7 only,
with the right-most digit counting ones, the next counting multiples of 8, then
8^2 = 64, etc. For example, octal 177 is digital 127:
digit weight value
1 8^2 = 64 1* 64 = 64
7 8^1 = 8 7* 8 = 56
7 8^0 = 1 7* 1 = 7
---
127
Octal system used to be widespread back when many computers used 6-bit
bytes, as a 6-bit byte can be conveniently written
as a two-digit octal number. Since nowadays a byte
is almost always 8-bit long the octal system lost
most of its appeal to the hexadecimal system.
For a brief discussion on the word `octal' see hexadecimal.
(1997-06-16)
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