Today is the Programmer’s Day…or Is it today?
Sepember 3rd is the Programmer’s Day for non-leap years. So why it’s September 3rd? September 3rd is the 256th day of the year and 256 is a power of two. 256 = 2^8. It’s the point after an 8-bit unsigned byte has rolled over.
I’m really against celebrating the 256th day as the programmers day, the reason is
- Nobody uses 8-bit computer systems anymore
- And moreover the eight bits are nothing and it’s a nine bit number, meaning it starts with zero. If Jan 1st is a zero then Sept 23rd is the 255th day not the 256th day so tomorrow is the Programmers day.
What do you think?
Tiago said,
September 13, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
It isn’t about 8-bit computeres, but about a byte. A byte is and always will be 8 bits.
with a byte you can represent 256 numbers, witch is 0 to 255, if you are a programmer(except for VB programmers), then you know that everything is zero-based. therefore, when you talk about the 256th day, it really is 255