Old programming terminology
I could have asked this question on https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com but it is likely too linguistic for that forum (they don't have a terminology tag), and still could be too hackerish for this one:
Is there (or was there when programming was done at a lower level than today, and required more bit-twiddling) a tendency in colloquial professional English to convert the phrase "all ones" that denotes a bit pattern within a computer register or a memory location consisting of all "1" bits, into a noun?
For the opposite, all zeros, the common form is simply "a zero", but I have never heard "all ones" elevated to a noun phrase that could take an article.
A bit of trivia: in Russian, the corresponding word was "всеед" (vseed), shortening of "все единицы" (vse edinitsy, 'all ones'), incidentally homonymous to the word with the meaning "pantophage".
Is there (or was there when programming was done at a lower level than today, and required more bit-twiddling) a tendency in colloquial professional English to convert the phrase "all ones" that denotes a bit pattern within a computer register or a memory location consisting of all "1" bits, into a noun?
For the opposite, all zeros, the common form is simply "a zero", but I have never heard "all ones" elevated to a noun phrase that could take an article.
A bit of trivia: in Russian, the corresponding word was "всеед" (vseed), shortening of "все единицы" (vse edinitsy, 'all ones'), incidentally homonymous to the word with the meaning "pantophage".