Re: [gnome-network]Binary units

[Germán Poó Caamaño <gpoo ubiobio cl>]

El jue, 18-12-2003 a las 03:11, Alexander Winston escribió:
> [...]
> 	To quote the National Institute of Standards and Technology, "It is
> important to recognize that the new prefixes for binary multiples are
> not part of the International System of Units (SI), the modern metric
> system." However, even with the availability of prefixes for binary
> multiples, I believe that only prefixes for decimal multiples should be
> used, due to their ease of use and users' familiarity with them.

The same document referenced at the end of your email:
http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec04.html quote:

    Note:    Alternative definitions of the SI prefixes and their
    symbols *are not permitted*. For example, it is unacceptable to use
    kilo (k) to represent 2^10 = 1024, mega (M) to represent 
    2^20 = 1 048 576, or giga (G) to represent 2^30 = 1 073 741 824.

(the emphasis is mine)

So, http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/x14800.html
says that 10 Megabytes should be 10 MB.  According I understand
the documentation and the note it should be 10^10 and not 2^10.

It could be confusing.  I mean, to use MB, GB, etc. we should
change the programs to reflect 10^x and not 2^x, and the 
results will be different if the user compare, for instance, the
output of gnome-netinfo with ifconfig, because ifconfig uses
2^x.

If we trying to say MB, GB, etc. as 2^x, we will not respecting the
guide of SI.

IMHO, if the units says MiB anyone can understand it according 
to the context *and* it will be more accurate, without two
differentes meanings.

At least, Nautilus preferences (2.5), galeon (donwloader) and
gnome-network are already using the new prefixes.  I agree we
must standarize.

-- 
Germán Poó Caamaño
mailto:gpoo ubiobio cl
http://www.ubiobio.cl/~gpoo/