Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:39:34 -0500 From: Matt Penna <mdp1261@ritvax.isc.rit.edu> To: doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: inconsistent use of data units Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20020220202721.01da82a0@vmspop.isc.rit.edu> In-Reply-To: <20020221003116.GA11893@hades.hell.gr> References: <3C743707.3080505@adacel.com> <3C743707.3080505@adacel.com>
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At 02:31 AM 2/21/02 +0200, you wrote: >On 2002-02-21 10:53, Michael Wardle wrote: > > Hi. > > > > 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 would probably prefer it if we consistently used KB for Kilobyte(s), >and MB for Megabytes, but having different symbols for units that are >multiples of 1024 and other symbols/contractions for multiples of 1000! >No, please no. Seeing this thread jogged my memory about something else. Way, way back (10+ years), I was taught that a lower-case 'b,' e.g., 2400bps, meant "bits" and a capital 'b,' e.g., 640kB, meant "bytes." Is this correct? If it is, then the confusion of these is a mistake I see quite frequently, too. Incidentally, I agree with Giorgos - "mebibits?" I'm all for being technically correct, but correctness at the expense of clarity is probably not the best idea. Mebibits is not in any of my standard English dictionaries. If I saw the term outside the context of this discussion, I would have no idea what was being said. Matt -- Matt Penna mdp1261@rit.edu ICQ: 399825 S0ba on AOLIM "The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots." -Dr. Who To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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