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nelz · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:33 pm Post subject:

There weren't many binary computers around in the 17th century, when the SI units were defined. Why should the recent need for a binary prefix corrupt and confuse the existing ones? It was laziness that led to the use of the decimal prefixes as binary ones in the first place and further laziness that prevents people using the correct binary prefixes now.
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AndyBaxman · LXF regular Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:47 am Posts: 520

I think this just adds to confusion. While it makes some sense to report file sizes in base-10 units, it is nonsensical for memory.

So you end up with an inconsistent system, on the same computer, where some KBs are 1024 bytes and other are 1000 bytes.

Which is more confusing, IMHO.
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nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:20 am Post subject:

Which is why kilo and giga should not be used for memory, but the more appropriate kibi and gibi. It's good to see someone taking a stand on this.
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AndyBaxman · LXF regular Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:47 am Posts: 520

towy71 · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:02 am Post subject:

I second that Andy Rolling Eyes

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nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:10 am Post subject:

The confusion will continue as long as people insist on using the wrong term, and the longer people keep doing so, the more the confusion will grow. Not that the man on the street knows what a kilobyte is either, but 1000 != 1024 and never has done.
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AndyBaxman · LXF regular Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:47 am Posts: 520

The term Kilobyte has meant 1024 bytes since the dawn of computing. For me the "byte" suffix is enough to indicate that, without all of this kibi/gibi stuff.

The confusion arises because now you have to think about whether an item is measured in SI or IEC units. RAM is IEC and disk drives are SI, but what about flash memory. Its a disk drive to the computer, but is actually solid-state memory with a round number of "gibis".

In any case, what does the k and g of kibi and gibi stand for if not kilo and giga? To really avoid confusion we need new terms:

1024 bytes = 1 BiggieByte (BB)
1024 BiggieBytes = 1 WhoppaByte (WB)
1024 WhoppaBytes = 1 EnormoByte (EB)
1024 EnormoByte = 1 HumongoByte (HB)

There, that should do it. No confusion with SI units at all now.
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nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:33 pm Post subject:

Rhakios · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:49 pm Post subject:

nelz · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:33 pm Post subject:

One has to keep in practice so that when writing for the

I was feeling dead but I'm much better now Smile

Either that or my net connection timed out so I had to paste my reply into a new post, what I originally typed was along the lines of

Would you defend this bastardisation of an established standard if it came from Redmond?
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cbuffer · Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:04 am Posts: 51

shinso wrote

Yeah but as nelz points out, computers use binary Very Happy

And as crappy as my laptop may be, it doesn't need to use my fingers to count.

Wow! Your laptop does voice recognition?

jjmac · Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:44 am Post subject:

Howdy All,

AndyBaxman wrote:

PCNetSpec · Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:06 pm Post subject:

And just to 'muddy' the water further...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/16/ternary_memory/

Wink

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jjmac · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:59 am Post subject:

Howdy All,

nelz wrote:

nelz · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:54 am Post subject:

But that's not how the standards are defihed. kilo = 1000, that's it, no edge cases, no context-sensitive change-it-when-it-suits-us options. The standard has been clearly defined for hundreds of years, ignoring it was wrong.

If you want a prefix that means a multiple of 1024, create one, don't unilaterally redefine 1000 to mean 1024 in certain cases. even if the cases were clearly defined, which they aren't, this would still be plain wrong. how woulkd you feel if, for the purposes of your salary, your employer redefined $1 as 90c?
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