Re: [Gimp-developer] Size on disk vs size reported on status bar

[Chris Mohler <cr33dog gmail com>]

> For people like me who can never remember the
> difference between a byte and a bit, is there a one-sentence explanation for
> why there are bytes *and* bits?

As Jehan mentioned, a bit is simply a holder for one 0 or 1 value (a
yes or no answer). A byte is 8 of those answers. Why 8?  Old ( and
weird, possibly arbitrary ) hardware limitations. IIRC, to get a
character like 'A', 'B', 'C', etc to display we had to use bytes of
bits, and that's why we're still counting them today ;)

Chris