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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: How to configure konqueror to show KB and MB instead of KiB and
From:       Parker Coates <parker.coates () gmail ! com>
Date:       2009-07-12 22:27:35
Message-ID: 85d347350907121527q4cb8c9f5o667952396d7940ac () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 6:32 AM, Karl Ove Hufthammer wrote:
> As a translator of KDE, let me chime in.
>
> First, I'm very happy to see that KDE (at least Konqueror and Dolphin) has
> finally changed to properly labeling the units as KiB, MiB, etc.
>
> For us translators, this has been a continuing source of frustration. We
> wish to provide the correct translations of the units (KiB if it's a KiB, kB
> if it's a kB, kb if it's a kb, etc.) as a service to the users, even if the
> original strings are incorrect. However, the inconsistent use of the letters
> make this very time-consuming, and sometimes very difficult.
>
> Basically, for every every time we encounter a KB, a kb, or a similar
> string, we have to look up the source for the file containing the string,
> figure out where the string is used (which may be in a completely different
> source file), and what it means (dividing by 1024 or 1024 * 1024 indicates a
> KiB and a MiB, respectively).
>
> How big is this problem? Quite big. Here are just some of the different
> strings used in various official KDE apps (I have not included strings for
> MiB, GiB, etc.):
>
> KB
> kB
> kb
> kBytes
> kBi
> kbit
>
> Do you know what all of these means? Always? Do the author (frequently not).
> Do the user?
>
> We have a similar issue when the units are used to measure speed or
> frequency. I have found all of the following in various KDE apps:
>
> kbps
> Kbps
> kbs
> kb/s
> kB/s
> KB/s
> kbits/s
> kbit/sec
> kb/sec
>
> Each time I have to look up to see if the author meant a 1000 bytes, 1024
> bytes, 1000 bits, 1024 bits, and then provide the correct translation, e.g.,
> KiB/s or kb/s (which both follow the official SI system for derived units,
> where ‘ps' or ‘/sec' or ‘/secs' is never used).
>
> So, I'd ask the KDE developer to *please* clean up this mess.
>
> Follow SI consistently. Preferably also use kibi and mebi units instead kilo
> and mega units (exceptions where decimal units are ‘standard' is OK).
>
> And if possible, please include comments with each string showing that you
> have done so (example: ‘Note: MiB = 1024 × 1024 bytes', ‘Note: b = bit',
> ‘Note: B = byte', 'Note: kb/s = 1000 bits per second'), so we don't have to
> double-check the source code to ensure the author got it right.

I would strongly encourage you to report such inconsistent use of
units as bugs. For file/mail/data sizes, the only right solution is to
use KLocale::formatByteSize(). Anything else would seem like a bug to
me.

Maybe to enforce further consistency we should add
KLocale::formatByteRate(double bytesPerSecond) for file transfers and
such and KLocale::formatBitRate(double bitsPerSecond) for lower level
transmission rates. The former should use the same logic as
formatByteSize() whatever that turns out to be. The later should
probably only use "bit/s" with power of 10 prefixes, because as far as
I know that's the only commonly used standard.

Parker
 
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