Subject: Re: MIT ChaosNet code port to Linux
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 16:22:45 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3233751765044830@naggum.net>

* dvdavins@aol.comNOSPAM (Dvd Avins)
| Are the 2 shift states here the most successful instance of trinary computing?
| AFICT 5 bits and 2 'shift states' is equivalent to 5 bits and 1 trit.

  Huh?  1 bit gives you two shift states if the system is capable of shifting,
  which we have to assume once we say "shift state" to begin with.  Two _codes_
  were used to select state.  Letter shift and figures shift.  Now, two _codes_
  could have been two independent bits, right?  That would have given a lot
  more codes, but since there were only two states, you have a space of a total
  of 60 codes.  (I think I write 90 up there somewhere, a bad thinko.)  If you
  could combine the two codes (two orthogonal shift codes), things would have
  been much more powerful, but that was not the case.
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