size in kbytes?

[jjf@bcs.org.uk]

Re: size in kbytes?


Mark McIntyre wrote:[color=blue]
> On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:37:21 -0600, in comp.lang.c , "Stephen Sprunk"
> <stephen@sprunk .org> wrote:[color=green]
> >
> >"kilo" officially means 1000;[/color]
>
> indeed. Except in computing, where, since the dawn of time, it has
> meant 1024.[/color]

Not true. I started in the industry long after the dawn of computing
time, but the first couple of machines I worked on were widely deployed
commercial systems which had memory counted and addressed in kilobytes
of 1000 bytes, They did their arithmetic in ASCII as well, but that's
another story.

[Spoon]

Re: size in kbytes?

Eric Sosman wrote:
[color=blue]
> The oddest and perhaps most bletcherous abuse in this sad history of
> wilful corruption is the "1.44 megabyte" floppy disk. Said disk does
> *not* hold 1.44 megabytes using either the true SI "mega" or the
> geekish two-to-the-twentieth "mega." What is actually holds is 1.44
> "kilo" (SI) "kilobytes" (geekish), a truly bastardized unit unloved
> by both parents.[/color]

i.e. 2880 512-byte sectors = 1,474,560 bytes

[William J. Leary Jr.]

Re: size in kbytes?

Mark McIntyre wrote:[color=blue]
> Except in computing, where, since the dawn of time, it has
> meant 1024.[/color]

I don't know about that. Or maybe I should say I *do* know about that. I've
been in "the business" since '74 or so, and initially worked with rather older
equipment. More than a few systems I worked with used 1000 for K. In fact, it
was common for us to find out what the documents were using for K and write it
on the cover. I've probably left twenty or thirty manuals behind with notes in
the lower right corner saying either "K=1000" or "K=1024" or (in a few annoying
cases) "K=BOTH."

- Bill

[CBFalconer]

Re: size in kbytes?

Mark McIntyre wrote:[color=blue]
> <stephen@sprunk .org> wrote:[color=green]
>>"Martin Jørgensen" <unoder.spam@sp am.jay.net> wrote in message[color=darkred]
>>> Nils O. Selåsdal wrote:
>>>
>>>> Depends on your definition of kilobyte
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte
>>>
>>> What would you use and why? What's "normal" ?
>>>
>>> I think 1024 is more correct...?[/color]
>>
>> "kilo" officially means 1000;[/color]
>
> indeed. Except in computing, where, since the dawn of time, it
> has meant 1024.[/color]

That dawn is well within the memory of the present generation.[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>> the official prefix for 1024 is "kibi".[/color]
>
> That is absolutely the very first time I've ever heard anyone claim
> that and be serious. I'm aware of the IEC attempt to standardise,
> but frankly nobody in the world uses these aburd francisations.[/color]

And, until relatively recently, nobody used kg, meters, etc. Now,
outside the US, nobody uses the FPS system. The length of Henry
VIIIs arm is no longer an accepted standard.

--
"If you want to post a followup via groups.google.c om, don't use
the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
"show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
"Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson
More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell. org/google/>
Also see <http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsrep ly/>

[Jordan Abel]

Re: size in kbytes?

On 2006-03-31, CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yah oo.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> Mark McIntyre wrote:[color=green]
>> <stephen@sprunk .org> wrote:[color=darkred]
>>>"Martin Jørgensen" <unoder.spam@sp am.jay.net> wrote in message
>>>> Nils O. Selåsdal wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Depends on your definition of kilobyte
>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte
>>>>
>>>> What would you use and why? What's "normal" ?
>>>>
>>>> I think 1024 is more correct...?
>>>
>>> "kilo" officially means 1000;[/color]
>>
>> indeed. Except in computing, where, since the dawn of time, it
>> has meant 1024.[/color]
>
> That dawn is well within the memory of the present generation.[/color]

Which present generation? The one that had Apple II's at school and DOS
PCs at home?

[Mark McIntyre]

Re: size in kbytes?

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:06:40 -0500, in comp.lang.c , CBFalconer
<cbfalconer@yah oo.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>And, until relatively recently, nobody used kg, meters, etc. Now,
>outside the US, nobody uses the FPS system.[/color]

Come over to the UK sometime, and after you drive the miles from the
airport, someone will buy you a pint of beer, I'm sure.
[color=blue]
>The length of Henry
>VIIIs arm is no longer an accepted standard.[/color]

Grin.
Mark McIntyre
--
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

[Flash Gordon]

Re: size in kbytes?

CBFalconer wrote:[color=blue]
> Mark McIntyre wrote:[color=green]
>> <stephen@sprunk .org> wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> "Martin Jørgensen" <unoder.spam@sp am.jay.net> wrote in message
>>>> Nils O. Selåsdal wrote:[/color][/color][/color]

<snip>
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> the official prefix for 1024 is "kibi".[/color]
>> That is absolutely the very first time I've ever heard anyone claim
>> that and be serious. I'm aware of the IEC attempt to standardise,
>> but frankly nobody in the world uses these aburd francisations.[/color]
>
> And, until relatively recently, nobody used kg, meters, etc. Now,
> outside the US, nobody uses the FPS system. The length of Henry
> VIIIs arm is no longer an accepted standard.[/color]

Never say nobody. I'm outside the US ans still use feet and inches, it's
what I grew up with so it's what I think in most easily. I somehow doubt
I am the only one in the UK still using imperial measurements.

Also, most people miss-use the IS units according to what I was taught
in school. The multiplies should be in upper case and divisors in lower
case. So any time you see "mb" it is a milli-bit not a megabyte, and
"mB" would be a milli-byte. These are probably not the most useful of
measurements.

All this is tremendously off topic, so this will be my only contribution.
--
Flash Gordon, living in interesting times.
Web site - http://home.flash-gordon.me.uk/
comp.lang.c posting guidelines and intro:

http://clc-wiki.net/wiki/Intro_to_clc

[Ben Pfaff]

Re: size in kbytes?

Flash Gordon <spam@flash-gordon.me.uk> writes:
[color=blue]
> Also, most people miss-use the IS units according to what I was taught
> in school. The multiplies should be in upper case and divisors in lower
> case.[/color]

This is not uniformly true. "k" is a multiplier that should be
lowercase.
--
"Programmer s have the right to be ignorant of many details of your code
and still make reasonable changes."
--Kernighan and Plauger, _Software Tools_

[CBFalconer]

Re: size in kbytes?

Flash Gordon wrote:[color=blue]
>[/color]
.... snip ...[color=blue]
>
> Also, most people miss-use the IS units according to what I was
> taught in school. The multiplies should be in upper case and
> divisors in lower case. So any time you see "mb" it is a milli-
> bit not a megabyte, and "mB" would be a milli-byte. These are
> probably not the most useful of measurements.[/color]

mb and mB are probably quite useful when measuring the performance
of arithmetic compressors :-)

--
"If you want to post a followup via groups.google.c om, don't use
the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
"show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
"Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson
More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell. org/google/>
Also see <http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsrep ly/>