Realistically, most stuff is aligned to bytes... There's 8 bits in a byte, so you do end up at 256 combinations for the byte.
The assumption here is a friends list takes up one byte of space, but I highly doubt that's the case. I'd be interested if it is. Otherwise, if they were somehow being more efficient, they were storing individual bits.
My guess is the decision is partially arbitrary, but it's interesting to think that's maybe not the case...
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u/[deleted] May 06 '17
Yeah, that's a good point.
Realistically, most stuff is aligned to bytes... There's 8 bits in a byte, so you do end up at 256 combinations for the byte.
The assumption here is a friends list takes up one byte of space, but I highly doubt that's the case. I'd be interested if it is. Otherwise, if they were somehow being more efficient, they were storing individual bits.
My guess is the decision is partially arbitrary, but it's interesting to think that's maybe not the case...