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On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 7:52 AM, Michał Górny <mgorny@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> Why would base-1024 prefixes make any sense when the numbers are |
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> base 10? |
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|
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Numbers are numbers, but they are displayed in base 10 and people |
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commonly think/work in base 10. |
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|
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In the interest of debating specific policy ahead of the meeting, I'll |
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go ahead and propose: |
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|
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Proposal 1 |
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"Whenever practical Developers are encouraged to use SI units and base |
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10 values (ie 1KB = 1000 bytes). They may use base 2 values when this |
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output is more likely to be useful to users (eg in memory hexdumps, |
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etc). Either way, unit prefixes defined in IEC 80000-13 (KB, KiB, |
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etc) must be used so that output is unambiguous. This does not |
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require maintainers to patch upstream code to change its behavior, but |
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they should be applied with code that originates in Gentoo." |
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|
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While I understand the resentment at the redefinition of prefixes that |
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have been in use for decades, the ambiguity of using SI prefixes with |
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non-SI definitions creates confusion and potentially error. I think |
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clarity should always be valued when the change is otherwise cosmetic. |
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|
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So, use MiB or MB as makes sense, but the latter should be the default |
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and should always mean 1000000 bytes. |
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|
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If there is strong objection to my first proposal I offer: |
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|
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Proposal 2 |
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"Whenever practical developers are required to use unit prefixes |
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defined in IEC 80000-13 (KB, KiB, etc) so that output is unambiguous. |
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This does not require maintainers to patch upstream code to change its |
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behavior, but they should be applied with code that originates in |
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Gentoo." |
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|
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This takes no stance on whether 1000 vs 1024 is preferred but still |
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requires the new-style prefixes to remove ambiguity. I strongly |
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advocate that using "KB" to refer to 1024 bytes is a recipe for |
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confusion, if only because everybody who attends a decent school comes |
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out indoctrinated that kilo means something else. |
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|
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Rich |