b+ String Math Update

[SMcNeill]

It's, 2 digit rep of digit symbols for another number base, Dragoncat's dream/vision idea. He is seeing something I don't yet quite get.

I need more motivation to get more interested, why do we need such big bases? faster math? like what computers do with Hex.

Only reason I could think would be for compression.

Take a base two number:
1111111111111111  (16 digits)

Same number in base 10:
65535 (5 digits)

Same number in base 16 (hex):
FFFF (4 digits)

Same number in base 256 (ASCII):
CHR$(255) (1 digit)

Bigger base, the more you can represent in a smaller number of digits.  I don't think it'd necessarily be *faster* as you'd have much more complex math tables to look up and deal with, but it'd be *smaller*

In base-1000, you might have the number 987,654 represented by (orange)(apple), where (orange) and (apple) are the two symbols you chose to represent 987 and 654 respectively.   (orange)(orange)(apple)(apple) would be four symbols and represent 987,987,654,654 -- which is a lot more than 4-bits to represent!  

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But... aside from that, I honestly can't see anyone needing a base-1000 for anything.  And the work involved to generate the tables, look them up, translate them, blah blah blah...  It's nothing I'd truly ever consider worth the effort to do.

But I'm a farmer at heart.  If it's within an acre, it's close enough, so all I need is base-"Looks good enough" around here. 

"Let's see... I need a chicken fence that goes around about a 20 foot by 30 foot area....  That'd be... this here old roll of wire, and probably some of this new roll, and maybe use some of these palettes to nail up to cover any gaps..."