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On Friday 10 July 2009 12:07:37 Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> You also wrote:
> > It would be nice of these people to name it like a new unit instead
> > of stealing a perfectly good, working unit name, in current use by
> > millions around the world.
>
> ...and I agree. Unfortunately, the people that decided to misuse "kilo"
> didn't decide to name it like a new unit and instead stole a perfectly
> good, working unit name*, in current use by millions around the world.
Except you're not "punishing" the perpetrators here, so please dismount the=
=20
high horse. ;)
> >> The people designing computers were largely mathematicians. As
> >> mathematicians, they knew better than to do something as confusing as
> >> that. Laziness had everything to do with it.
> >
> > Or maybe they felt it wasn't confusing (because it's not)?
>
> SI says "kiloXXX" =3D "1000 XXX". CS says "kilobyte =3D 1024 bytes".
>
> Nope, not confusing at all.
Ian Wadham has already listed quite a few other examples of things that are=
=20
*initially* confusing that end up requiring explanation but haven't been=20
changed due to their prevalence in existing practice. I would recommend=20
reading his email if you haven't already.
> > ... that's my point. When people get interested they will look up KB a=
nd
> > see that "it means 1024 hur hur hur".
>
> ...or they've had high school science (in the U.S.) and "know" that
> "kilo" =3D 1000. Except - surprise! - that's wrong in this case.
If they had high school science they'd know that K is something completely=
=20
different from k. (Kelvin versus kilo)
> (In sensible countries - i.e. those not using imperial - they probably
> learn SI even earlier, since it is relevant to every day life. Reminds
> me of English, really. 'Always put the "i" before the "e" when the
> letters occur together... except, you know, '.
English is hardly the only language with a list of exceptions to its rules.=
;)
> > KDE is supposed to be innovative. See Plasma, KIO, KParts, and Nepomuk.
> > Why not be innovative again, and lead the way with unambiguous measures.
> > [T]hat's why I haven't once proposed changing away from kibibytes by
> > default.
>
> I'm confused. On the one hand you support KiB, but you don't think KB is
> ambiguous?
Sure I think it's ambiguous, that's why I've proposed unambiguous decimal=20
units. Everyone wins! :)
> > My proposal for KdB was in that regard half-snarky and only a little bit
> > serious. Do I mind if we have an option that makes KB =3D=3D 1000? No=
, but
> > I want it to be non-default and I really do think it's a better idea to
> > have specific units for the same reason it was a good idea to come up
> > with KiB.
>
> Was anyone asking for "KB =3D 1000 B" to be default? I thought we mostly
> agreed KiB should stay default... (And anyway "KB =3D 1000 B" is wrong, it
> should be "kB =3D 1000 B" :-) ...note lower case 'k'.)
No, but people were asking that KB should never be visible unless it meant=
=20
1000 bytes, which is inconsistent with existing practice and was certainly =
not=20
wanted by a significant amount of people.
Regards,
- Michael Pyne
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