4 ms·

I keep saying that, by chance, it's a pity that the English alphabet has exactly 23 letters and doesn't have a single one more. Had it one more letter, say "ñ"

I keep saying that, by chance, it's a pity that the English alphabet has exactly 23 letters and doesn't have a single one more. Had it one more letter, say "ñ" or "ç" or some other, that'd make it perfect for base64: 24*2 + 10 = 64. Instead now we have 62 "base" alphanumeric alphabet, and two symbols that are disagreed upon since they have to be chosen depending on the context.

smeej 3y ago
Wait, here I've been thinking the alphabet has 26 letters all this time? (double checks keyboard)
- etrevino 3y ago
  You're right
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
  I used to see typos like that and double check that I didn't shift universes. I eventually figured out the the shifts aren't that obvious.
- quesera 3y ago
  > 26 letters J, U, and W are sometimes considered pretenders. Late additions, at least. J is just a stylized I. U is a variation of V. W is of course just a double U. G is also a relatively recent entry, if you go back to the Romans from which the Latin/English alphabet is derived.
  - gsich 3y ago
    Q also. K can be used instead.
- pimlottc 3y ago
  Nope, it's 23, the same as the number of fingers and toes you have.
  - doodlebugging 3y ago
    >the same as the number of fingers and toes you have. You really only have 18 fingers and toes when you think about it - 10 toes + 8 fingers. Those other two appendages are thumbs. Even my kids know this. EDIT: You also have two sets of knees - your low knees, and your high knees.
    - smeej 3y ago
      I only have one heiney, but I'm curious about your second one!
      - doodlebugging 3y ago
        I used the head and shoulders knees and toes song to help teach my kids all the main parts in the song. Then I worked on showing them they had two sets of knees. The low knees were the ones you pat with both hands in that song. (Your ordinary knees.) Since they knew that song I taught them that they actually had two sets of knees, low knees and high knees (hiney, LOL). When I asked them to pat their knees they would use both hands to pat their (low) knees and then reach up behind and pat their high knees (hineys). The best part was that they would announce which knees they were patting. Pretty funny for me helping my toddlers attain true enlightenment. I thought it was funny. My wife didn't at first but everyone who knows me understood why it worked out this way. I kept on the message that they only had 8 fingers too in the hopes that they would argue with their teachers about it and win by showing those teachers that two of those digits are actually thumbs. I made sure they understood that they have 10 digits but only 8 of them are fingers, the other two are thumbs. Ha ha, whose the smartest now, teacher?
- franciscop 3y ago
  wow how did I mess up my post so badly? I didn't even do the proper math _now_, ofc the alphabet has 26 letters and my math above only works for 26 and not 23. I did check back when I had this thought many times. I guess I might have just had a brain fart now, I just copied what googled said while writing my post and somehow Google said 23 in a quick/bad search, so I just copied that number without checking it. 26 * 2 + 10 = 62, almost 64 (26 + 1) * 2 + 10 = 64
  - wizofaus 3y ago
    Wouldn't surprise me in the least if ChatGPT gave the alphabet written out as an example of a word with 23 letters. I wonder what the history is behind why base-64 encoding became so widespread. Sadly I can even recognise certain sequences now without having to decode them. But the fact it's not even safe for use in URLs/filenames (due to + and /) would suggest it's not really fit for purpose (and yes I know base64-url encoding exists, I once had to write code that had to deal with strings that could use either encoding, and you could only tell by looking for the presence of _ or -. Certainly that _ was not originally chosen as one the extra 2 characters needed on top of A-Za-z0-9 for full encoding is a bit baffling. "-" is often used as delimeter though - my other pick would have been #.)
franciscop 3y ago
Edit: I mistakenly wrote 23 _now in this post_ while I've had this thought many times with the correct alphabet number count, 26. In fact my math above only works for 26 (or 27 if it had one more letter).

smeej 3y ago

Wait, here I've been thinking the alphabet has 26 letters all this time? (double checks keyboard)

etrevino 3y ago
You're right
WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
I used to see typos like that and double check that I didn't shift universes. I eventually figured out the the shifts aren't that obvious.
quesera 3y ago
> 26 letters J, U, and W are sometimes considered pretenders. Late additions, at least. J is just a stylized I. U is a variation of V. W is of course just a double U. G is also a relatively recent entry, if you go back to the Romans from which the Latin/English alphabet is derived.
- gsich 3y ago
  Q also. K can be used instead.
pimlottc 3y ago
Nope, it's 23, the same as the number of fingers and toes you have.
- doodlebugging 3y ago
  >the same as the number of fingers and toes you have. You really only have 18 fingers and toes when you think about it - 10 toes + 8 fingers. Those other two appendages are thumbs. Even my kids know this. EDIT: You also have two sets of knees - your low knees, and your high knees.
  - smeej 3y ago
    I only have one heiney, but I'm curious about your second one!
    - doodlebugging 3y ago
      I used the head and shoulders knees and toes song to help teach my kids all the main parts in the song. Then I worked on showing them they had two sets of knees. The low knees were the ones you pat with both hands in that song. (Your ordinary knees.) Since they knew that song I taught them that they actually had two sets of knees, low knees and high knees (hiney, LOL). When I asked them to pat their knees they would use both hands to pat their (low) knees and then reach up behind and pat their high knees (hineys). The best part was that they would announce which knees they were patting. Pretty funny for me helping my toddlers attain true enlightenment. I thought it was funny. My wife didn't at first but everyone who knows me understood why it worked out this way. I kept on the message that they only had 8 fingers too in the hopes that they would argue with their teachers about it and win by showing those teachers that two of those digits are actually thumbs. I made sure they understood that they have 10 digits but only 8 of them are fingers, the other two are thumbs. Ha ha, whose the smartest now, teacher?
franciscop 3y ago
wow how did I mess up my post so badly? I didn't even do the proper math _now_, ofc the alphabet has 26 letters and my math above only works for 26 and not 23. I did check back when I had this thought many times. I guess I might have just had a brain fart now, I just copied what googled said while writing my post and somehow Google said 23 in a quick/bad search, so I just copied that number without checking it. 26 * 2 + 10 = 62, almost 64 (26 + 1) * 2 + 10 = 64
- wizofaus 3y ago
  Wouldn't surprise me in the least if ChatGPT gave the alphabet written out as an example of a word with 23 letters. I wonder what the history is behind why base-64 encoding became so widespread. Sadly I can even recognise certain sequences now without having to decode them. But the fact it's not even safe for use in URLs/filenames (due to + and /) would suggest it's not really fit for purpose (and yes I know base64-url encoding exists, I once had to write code that had to deal with strings that could use either encoding, and you could only tell by looking for the presence of _ or -. Certainly that _ was not originally chosen as one the extra 2 characters needed on top of A-Za-z0-9 for full encoding is a bit baffling. "-" is often used as delimeter though - my other pick would have been #.)

franciscop 3y ago

Edit: I mistakenly wrote 23 _now in this post_ while I've had this thought many times with the correct alphabet number count, 26. In fact my math above only works for 26 (or 27 if it had one more letter).