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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: How to configure konqueror to show KB and MB instead of KiB and
From:       Josh Berry <des () condordes ! net>
Date:       2009-07-02 1:01:37
Message-ID: 2feea0a0907011801y11522c70hd68a16643e2d8024 () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 17:17, Michael Pyne<mpyne@kde.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday 01 July 2009 12:36:52 Josh Berry wrote:
>> However, I think it would be perfectly fine to have an option to
>> switch units.  Show "KB" (= 1000 bytes), or show "KiB" (= 1024 bytes).
>>  But I am opposed to any option that lets 1 KB = 1024 bytes.
>
> Say again?
>
> There's no way I'd support a patch that changes away the meaning of "KB" away
> from the commonly used 1024 bytes, at least not while "KB" is still in active
> use.

My whole argument has been that such usage, contrary to your
assertion, IS NOT COMMON.  It is an EXCEPTION that is common only
among geeks and power-users, and we are being INCORRECT by propagating
it.

In my experience, people who have only a passing familiarity with
computers tend to assume that kilo = 1,000, mega = 1,000,000, and so
on.  This is another case where we have vocabulary that is agreed-upon
and useful to us, but confusing (or downright misleading) to everybody
else.

> If we were to "change the meaning back" to kB it could only occur after
> deprecating KB in favor of KiB, getting buy-in to that from enough computing
> vendors (both software and hardware) to eliminate usage of 1024 byte KB, and
> only then taking the unit back to mean 1000 bytes.

How many normal USERS today do you think understand (or even think
about) the fact that KB == 1024 and not 1000? I'd wager not many.

(This of course raises the question of why we're even arguing about
it, since it affects so few people, but anyway.)

> And still no one has explained how using context to figure out KB == 1024
> bytes is hard for people, yet these same people understand what a kibibyte is.
> (I am completely uninterested in the case where people understand neither,
> especially given how the prevalence of Windows ensures that they will continue
> to learn KB == 1024 before they ever touch on kibibytes)

Clearly it's not hard; none of us have trouble doing so. But it is
non-obvious -- it requires knowledge, not intelligence.

> I understand that the error between SI prefixes and 2^(10n) gets most drastic
> as n goes up.  I sympathize, really I do.  But let's take this example,
> someone buys a 500 GB hard disk.  Hard disk manufacturer means 500 * 10^9
> bytes, not 500 * 2^30 bytes.
>
> With KDE 3 style units, kdf would have shown approx a 465 GB hard disk.
> With KDE 4 style units, kdf would have shown approx a 465 GiB hard disk.
>
> It's the same damn number... it's still going to lead to confusion.

It's only the same to people who don't pay attention to the 'i'.  But
to people who DO pay attention--even if they aren't
knowledgeable--there is now a visual cue that something is different,
whereas before there wasn't.

So the Windows user will be left scratching his head and wondering
where his extra 35 GB went, with no indication that 465 GB != 465 GiB.
 The KDE user, however, will be able to see, "Oh, GiB is different.  I
wonder what it means?"

IMO that's a critical difference, if small.

-- Josh
 
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