The true meaning of 42

submitted by [deleted] from i.imgur.com

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

Well, no, they'd have been using hex. In decimal it's 42, but in hex 42 is "B". Nobody would've been using simple binary by the time the book was published in the 70s, and IBM introduced modern hexadecimal systems in the 60s. If it really did have to do with programming then why would he refer to the decimal designation?

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

0xB is 12 in decimal. 0x2A is 42.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Okay? What about what I wrote did you not understand? We're talking about which hexadecimal values correspond to ASCII characters. Not base conversions.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

“In hex, 42 is ‘B’” is incorrect. That’s what you said.

Edit: Oh, I just realized you meant that the hex value 0x42 corresponds to the letter B in the ASCII table.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Edit: Oh, I just realized you meant that the hex value 0x42 corresponds to the letter B in the ASCII table.

Yes.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Would be less confusing if you used the standard 0x denotation. My bad.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Or you could've read "In hex", like I wrote. Both denote the same thing. Perhaps, in future, you will read more cautiously to make sure you do not misunderstand people.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

And perhaps in the future you will use common conventions to reduce ambiguity in your writing. There’s a reason why the two are parsed differently by interpreters and compilers. The same is true for humans.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

It's almost as though I explicitly did so by specifying "in hex". You know, with words. That you could've read. And are now desperately scrabbling to salvage your ego from instead of acknowledging you skimmed the comment improperly.

[–]SheSellsSeaShells 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Obstinate.