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C++ proposal: There are exactly 8 bits in a byte
1. Rationale C has the macro which contains the implementation-defined number of bits in a byte, without restrictions on the value of this number.
While this was historically relevant in computing’s early days, modern hardware has overwhelmingly converged on the assumption that a byte is 8 bits. The complexity of supporting non-8-bit byte architectures sprinkles small but unnecessary burden in quite a few parts of language and library; These architectures made sense in their era, where word sizes varied and the notion of a byte wasn’t standardized.
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