Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 15:08:58 +1100 From: Michael Wardle <michael.wardle@adacel.com> To: Dima Dorfman <null@trit.org> Cc: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: inconsistent use of data units Message-ID: <3C7472DA.8060106@adacel.com> References: <20020221034421.AE58A3E35@bazooka.trit.org>
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Dima Dorfman wrote: >>>There is a standard on how to represent data sizes here: >>>http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html >>> >>>I suggest that the document is updated to consistently use this standard. >>> >>Reading that page, all I have to say is "NO. Good grief, no." >>Mebibit ? Kibibit ? Ye gods. >> > > I hate to add fuel to the fire, but I think Knuth's proposal on this > topic at least deserves mention: > http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news99.html (scroll down to > "What is a kilobyte?"). I think the only down side to this is that it > isn't a ratified standard--oh well. It does sort of seem a good idea, as it adapts US/Imperial terms such as "long megabyte" and so on, thus making it more acceptable to those in the US who only know US/Imperial measures and seem to dislike SI for whatever reason. The fact that it is Imperial-like, is also its downfall, however. KKB could also be interpreted as kilokilobyte (you're not supposed to do that, but it's still possible). I've also been wondering whether Kv2 (Ksub2) might be an appropriate symbol for binary-style "kilo", but as you said, the IEEE/IEC system is the closest we have to a standard, so I don't think there's much point going against all their work. > P.S. There was a thread on linux-kernel late last year about this. > If you're one who wishes to fight to the death over the issue, please > read that thread; the time you save may be your own. Thanks for that, I'll have a look there. I heard a rumor that they had actually adopted this usage in some places, tho. Regards -- MICHAEL WARDLE | WORK +61-2-6024-2699 SGI Desktop & Admin Software | MOBILE +61-415-439-838 Adacel Technologies Limited | WEB http://www.adacel.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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