Bug#534408: debian-policy: Installed-Size is defined as "kilobytes" but dpkg-gencontrol fills it in with kibibytes
On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 11:17:03PM +0100, Roger Leigh wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 09:42:24AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> > Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert@math.u-bordeaux1.fr> writes:
> > > On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 07:49:40PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> >
> > >> Agreed. At the time Policy was originally written, kilobyte nearly
> > >> universally meant kibibyte in the industry. I'll change this to:
> >
> > >> The disk space is given as the integer value of the installed
> > >> size in bytes divided by 1024 and rounded (in other words, the
> > >> size in kibibytes).
> >
> > >> for the next release. (I believe this is an informative change that
> > >> doesn't require seconds.)
> >
> > > I formally object to the part '(in other words, the size in
> > > kibibytes)'.
> >
> > > (I believe this change is not informative and only serve the purpose
> > > of endorsing a standard which does not meet consensus in Debian.)
> >
> > Okay. As previously mentioned, I disagree and would prefer to retain
> > it, so I think at this point we need to hear more opinions to see how
> > widespread the disagreement is.
>
> I agree with the use of kibibytes here.
>
> Standard prefixes and units can and should be endorsed by Policy, or
> else we have confusion over what standard prefixes such as "kilo" mean.
> The meanings are well defined by both international conventions and
> standards, no matter if some people disagree or don't like the names.
>
> k = 10³ = 1000
> Ki = 2¹⁰ = 1024
>
> To do anything else would be plain wrong, and make computer
> scientists look like retards for using a prefix to mean something
> different than what rest of the *entire planet* understands it to be.
Fortunately, we don't use floppy disks anymore, where the meaning of Mega
was even more abused. (for the record, a 1.44MB floppy was 1440KB where
1KB was 1024B, making 1MB 1024000B)
Mike
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