The old PDP-10 had 36-bit words but you could write pointers to any range of bits inside a word. On that machine you could write a pointer to a single bit.
I was thinking about a fantasy computer that could run under JavaScript and have 48 bit words (fit in a double) and pointers like the PDP-10 but that could hang off one word into the next word. [1] First I was thinking “screw C” but came to the conclusion that supporting C would not be so hard after all with that kind of pointer.
[1] Think of a Chinese home computer from an alternate timeline where a strange mainframe had a baby with a NeoGeo arcade machine.
I was thinking about a fantasy computer that could run under JavaScript and have 48 bit words (fit in a double) and pointers like the PDP-10 but that could hang off one word into the next word. [1] First I was thinking “screw C” but came to the conclusion that supporting C would not be so hard after all with that kind of pointer.
[1] Think of a Chinese home computer from an alternate timeline where a strange mainframe had a baby with a NeoGeo arcade machine.