In the 1970s, the size of a byte changed from platform-to-platform, with 6-bit bytes and 6-word (aka: 36-bit words) remaining popular. It is in this environment

In the 1970s, the size of a byte changed from platform-to-platform, with 6-bit bytes and 6-word (aka: 36-bit words) remaining popular. It is in this environment that C was invented, or at least its predecessor the B language as well as Unix. By the 1980s, C is getting standardized but I'm guessing programmers were still used to the different sized bytes (let alone different sized words and/or integers) that 4x8-bit vs 6x6-bit (and other such computers). True, the 1980s established the 8-bit standard, but a veteran programmer had no reason to believe that 8-bits was going to remain the standard for the next decade.