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On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 7:05 PM, Joshua Kinard <kumba@g.o> wrote: |
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> Personally, I say make the metric version the default (new prefixes), and |
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> leave the choice available to switch to the SI (old prefix) form with a |
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> simple variable switch in a config file some where. |
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The metric system IS the SI system. The new prefixes are not yet SI |
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standards, but they are ISO standards. However, the new prefixes |
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pertain to the old way of doing things. |
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That is... |
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System 1 (generally used by programmers in the 60s-90s, but less |
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universally as time moved on, not compatible with SI): |
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1 kB = 1024 bytes, report everything in kB |
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System 2 (aligned with SI and the metric system - used sporadically |
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until heavily adopted by storage manufacturers for marketing reasons) |
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1 kB = 1000 bytes, report everything in kB |
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System 3 (the new ISO standard, compatible with SI but adds to it) |
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1kB = 1000 bytes |
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1 KiB = 1024 bytes |
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report things in whatever units you feel like |
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The main advantage of the ISO standard isn't the use of either base 2 |
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or base 10, but the fact that you can actually distinguish what base |
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is in use. |
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Either system 2/3 could be described as metric in nature - the only |
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one which isn't is System 1. |
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Rich |
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