How come TAR use octal numbers instead of decimal numbers?
by exerceo from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6NDTQ)
What is the benefit of using octal numbers? Isn't it rather confusing?
TAR is the only file format I am aware of which uses base 8 to encode numbers. Octal is neither space-efficient nor human-friendly.
Since TAR is an ancient format, could it be that computers from the 1970 and 1980 were better at dealing with octal numbers? It's the most plausible explanation I can think of.
TAR is the only file format I am aware of which uses base 8 to encode numbers. Octal is neither space-efficient nor human-friendly.
Since TAR is an ancient format, could it be that computers from the 1970 and 1980 were better at dealing with octal numbers? It's the most plausible explanation I can think of.