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The Etymology of BINZER



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Main entry:
 
binzer
 
 
Pronunciation:
 
/ 'bin-zur/
 
Function:
 
noun
 
Etymology:
 
BINary ZERo
 
Date:
 
1960's?
 
Usage:

 
originally in IBM S/360 assembler language programming:
 
  1 :  a binary digit of the value '0';
  2 :  a byte in which all bits are zero; eight consecutive binary digits of the value '00000000' (hexadecimal '00');
  3 :  the lowest value in a computer collating sequence; NUL.
 
  Note: Definition is distinct from computer code assignments of "zero" such as the displayable representations of EBCDIC hex'F0' and ASCII hex'30'.
 
Inflected Form(s): plural -s
  : containing multiple, consecutive bits of the value zero, or bytes in which all bits are zero <the last record is binzers>
 
Function: transitive verb
  : to change the value of bits or bytes to binary zero <always binzer your flag fields first>

 
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