I don't think you're understanding my point. Numbers are little more than their representation. 16 == 0x10 == 020 == 0b10000. All of those represent sixteen of something. Some representations are more convenient in certain circumstances than others. Perhaps you would have been satisfied if ambrus would have called his subroutine "decimalrepresentation2binaryrepresentation", as this is most accurate. However, I'd need to take a nap after typing such a subroutine name, so I'd shorten it, just as he did. And I think that most people understand what that subroutine does.