# Why do we score codegolf submissions in “bytes” instead of “chars”?

A single 05AB1E char takes all 8-bits of a byte, whereas BF only has 8 commands, so 3 bits per char, 2.5 BF commands per byte.

I'm not suggesting we change the judging rules, but why do we use the term bytes, and not chars?

• Because then we'd end up with new "languages" where there are a million builtins, all assigned to unique Unicode chars, and they all just count as one. Using bytes forces language creators to pick and choose what they want to add in, or accept that some functions will be counted as larger. – Geobits Mar 21 '17 at 17:51
• I am mistaken, was going off this list: github.com/Adriandmen/05AB1E/blob/master/Info.txt with two byte functions listed too – weston Mar 21 '17 at 17:57
• Simple answer: fairness. Long answer: Actually you have to specify the encoding to see the byte, some encodings define characters as bytes – Matthew Roh Mar 22 '17 at 10:22
• "8-bits of a byte" - bytes are 8-bits wide. – Shaun Bebbers Apr 5 '17 at 14:48
• @ShaunBebbers I said "all 8-bits of a byte" – weston Apr 5 '17 at 14:50

Scoring in bytes is convenient because then each language must have a consistent encoding, and it limits the total number of commands available to a golfing language. For example, an ultra compressed golfing language with two commands per byte is limited to only 2^4 == 16 possible commands, whereas a language like Jelly that takes advantage of the full 2^8 == 256 byte space has to create an encoding where each character can be stored in exactly one byte.