Re: Using standardized SI prefixes

[Miles Bader <miles.bader@necel.com>]

Magnus Holmgren <holmgren@lysator.liu.se> writes:
>> No it doesn't.
>>
>> The "SI binary prefixes" are an abomination.
>
> Why - besides pronunciation?

Well among other things, the end result of this whole mess will likely
be to _increase_ confusion, rather than lessen it:

Until now, in a typical computer app, "900K" had an unambiguous meaning:
900*1024.

Now that a bunch of people are all in a misguided frenzy to "correct"
things (which weren't broken), there will almost certainly be cases
where some silly fool will change the _calculation_ but not the label
(e.g., in a case where space is at a premium) -- e.g., they'll keep "K",
but change the calculation to "/ 1000", because that's "correct".

However it's _guaranteed_ that many apps will stick with "/ 1024".

Thus a suffix (e.g. K) which was previously unambiguous in practice
(and no, disk-drive advertisements don't count) will have become more
ambiguous in practice.

[At which point of course the kib-fans will start crying out that
because things are now very confused, we muuuuuuust switch to "gib"
suffixes -- all because they basically screwed things up.]

Great.

-Miles

-- 
`To alcohol!  The cause of, and solution to,
 all of life's problems' --Homer J. Simpson