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Comment by sowbug | Hacker News Reader

In defense of the explanation, sometimes it's asking for an unnecessary mental leap of the reader to think of a bit array as a number, especially if the reader is not accustomed to thinking in base-2 or base-16 number systems.

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The hash is just a number regardless-- surely no one has any problem understanding any other number in the protocol as a number! :)

Even this sentence is just a number.

Really it’s not because it’s a sequence of glyphs first and foremost. It can be mapped to a number though.

Nope, no mapping necessary. 36 octets, so a single 288 bit number in base 2. (Big-endian, unsigned, I guess) Then convert to any base you want.

(I should have probably used 32 octets so that it fits neatly in 256 bits)

Isn’t that a mapping? Because the primary purpose of the string of glyphs is readable by humans. Such representation is mapped to the numerical representation for storage in the computer. It may also be mapped to lines of ink written on a piece of paper for transmission

Oh, in my example, it's just a coincidence that the number was readable by humans! Other numbers may come out as complete gibberish.

The "mapping" you may be referring to is happening outside and subject to how your brain /your browser interpret it. (How do you know that when I posted the comment, that I didn't supply the raw bits of the number?! ;-))

Anyway, it was just a joke for low level-programmers I guess. Have a good day ;-)

You could easily explain the basic principles in human-sized numbers (ie, less than 1024).

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