On: 13 Nov 03  07:02:28 Jasen Betts wrote to Roger Scudder:

 > 12-Nov-03 06:06:24, Roger Scudder wrote to Jasen Betts
 >  RS> On: 10 Nov 03  06:17:51 Jasen Betts wrote to Neil Heller:
 >  RS> I'm not following you here...  He is describing a system that is
 >  RS> based on a 12 bit word

 > I thought he was describing a need to split up a datastream coinsisting of
 > concatenated 12 bit BCD values I assumed he was doing that in 8 bit hardware.

OK, I'm just trying to understand what he was describing.

 > the second question I thouight referred to splitting a single byte in half
 > using sscanf

Please bear with me here, but my understanding is that sscanf is limited to
field with in bytes rather than bits, so that there is no way to split a
byte.  

 >  RS> converted to hex the values would look like this...

 > why would anyone do that?

I don't know.  I am not implying that this would be a step in an actual
conversion process.  Rather, I am simply sketching out my thoughts to try
to get a clear picture of what the data might, or might not, look if
examined in a hex editor.  It also allows me to ask the question, "is
this what the data looks like, or is it something else?".

 >  RS> 34h 01h 25h 01h 33h 01h 34h 01h

 >  RS> when received at the 8 bit byte machine the stream would flatten
 >  RS> out like this...

 >  RS> 11010000 00011001 01000001 11001100 00011101 00000001

 > Not if a synchrionous link was used

Well, that's the part that wasn't clear to me.  The way he described
needing to use masks suggested to me that he was working on a very low
level with very raw data.  It would be interesting to know some more
details about what sort of communication interface was provided, as well as
what protocols, if any, were supported.  

 >  RS> D0h 19h 41h CCh 1Dh 01h

 >  RS> I can't see anyway to convert this data without masking and bit
 >  RS> shifting.  You had me going on the sscanf for a minute, but after
 >  RS> thinking about it, I don't think sscanf really helps at all

 > not for that task.

Right, well, I'm only trying to understand the topic and have a little fun
with it.  I feel safe to ask stupid questions in this echo...  and I don't
mind looking like an idiot from time to time if I can learn something from
the experience.  :-)


-Roger

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