Date: 20 Feb 2002 21:26:17 -0800 From: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) To: Michael Wardle <michael.wardle@adacel.com> Cc: Tom Rhodes <darklogik@pittgoth.com>, Wouter Van Hemel <wouter@pair.com>, Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: inconsistent use of data units Message-ID: <4r664rbe2u.64r@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <3C74673E.8010905@adacel.com> References: <3C743707.3080505@adacel.com> <20020221003116.GA11893@hades.hell.gr> <3C744D39.1020308@adacel.com> <1014256250.304.66.camel@cocaine> <3C745639.8080509@adacel.com> <3C7463A5.5060204@pittgoth.com> <3C74673E.8010905@adacel.com>
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Michael Wardle <michael.wardle@adacel.com> writes:
> If computer scientists had wanted to define their own units for
> computing, then they so be it. In adopting the SI prefixes (K, M, ...),
> however, there was an implied decision to make computing units defacto
> SI units.
Does that mean they decided that "bytes" were SI units and that kBytes
should mean 1000 bytes? Obviously, the used a non-SI factor of 1024
and I thing the implication (the inference anyway) would be that "bytes"
are NOT SI units as the prefixes are not. They just share the same
names, unfortunately.
SI TI (french for "IT", I'm guessing)
k = 1000^1 K = 1024^1
M = 1000^2 M = 1024^2
G = 1000^3 G = 1024^3
etc...
> I am not aware of *any* standard that prescribes
> 1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes, as it is clearly incorrect.
Other than the de facto standard, of course. Sorry; it's the standards
that are incorrect if they presume to tell us that 1 kilobyte does not
equal 1024 bytes. Now I've seen official standards (aerodynamic
reference frame stuff) that required me to call "up" "down", and one
must go along with such things sometimes. But this is not one of them.
> The *only* official statement on this matter I am aware of is the one
> the IEEE, IEC, and CIPM were involved in which clearly states:
>
> 1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte (symbol "kB")
> 1024 bytes = 1 kibibyte (symbol "KiB")
>
> By continuing the current practise (which I must say is far from
> uniform), we are continuing inaccuracy and ambiguity.
But using "kB" to mean 1000 bytes would be worse than ambiguous; it
would mislead most of the many FDP readers who don't take the time to
memorize the FDP introductory material on documentation standards. I'd
call such use inaccurate in an FDP context. (Maybe I wouldn't complain
about an FDP standard that used two different sets of non-SI prefixes
for these things, but I expect many others would complain.)
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