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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    [RFC] SI Units in KDE
From:       Ryan Cumming <ryan () completely ! kicks-ass ! org>
Date:       2002-09-19 16:43:54
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Hi,

KDE currently makes the (common) mistake of using SI units such as "megabyte" 
incorrectly. For instance, a megabyte is defined as 1,000,000 bytes, not 
1,048,576. In 1998, the IEEE created a set of binary prefixes to describe 
these "almost SI" units. A description of these prefixes can be found at:
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

However, the terms "MiB" and mibibyte aren't very common to most users. There 
would definitely be some initial confusion if KDE introduced correct usage of 
these prefixes. On the other hand, these units are starting the seep in to 
general usage (check ifconfig's output on any modern Linux installation, for 
instance).

Comments?

- -Ryan
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