Why not decimal?

[Sharpie]

Why do computers handle only bits and bytes ?:confused:

[Sharpie]

I read google results , people say it is hard to handle a decimal, flip its sign etc. but I think
to flip a sign from minus to plus is easy
e.g +1 and -1 but clearly it takes long time to format a number from input to computer compatible form then to reformat the result for user's review

[Skizmo]

Computers are made out of bits. That's the only thing they know. Go read some info on how the architecture of a chip works.

[MrViggy]

Computers operate on numbers in base 2 format, because that's all they can know. A transistor can only have two states, on or off.

Viggy

[GremlinSA]

I read google results , people say it is hard to handle a decimal, flip its sign etc. but I think
to flip a sign from minus to plus is easy
e.g +1 and -1 but clearly it takes long time to format a number from input to computer compatible form then to reformat the result for user's review

For you and me it's easy to flip the sign .. however in PC architecture +1 and -1 are stored very differently ...

using Int16.. +1 = &H0001 and -1 = &HFFFF

The thing is this method allows easier method to perform maths on the numbers..