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Date:      21 Feb 2002 02:50:50 +0100
From:      Wouter Van Hemel <wouter@pair.com>
To:        Michael Wardle <michael.wardle@adacel.com>
Cc:        Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, doc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: inconsistent use of data units
Message-ID:  <1014256250.304.66.camel@cocaine>
In-Reply-To: <3C744D39.1020308@adacel.com>
References:  <3C743707.3080505@adacel.com> <20020221003116.GA11893@hades.hell.gr>  <3C744D39.1020308@adacel.com>

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On Thu, 2002-02-21 at 02:28, Michael Wardle wrote:
> Giorgos Keramidas 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.
> 
> Yes, short for binary megabyte and binary kilobyte.  Call them the full 
> name if you can't get your tongue around the sort versions.
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Like it or not, 1000 bytes != 1024 bytes.  KB (or preferably kB) means 
> 1000 bytes, and that's not the units we usually talk about.
> 

So you think this would make things _less_ confusing... Interesting.

If we consistently use kb and mb (_with_ space...), and mention somewhere
that all units are powers of 2, wouldn't that settle it...


Kind regards,

  wouter



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