Bug 73345 – Use GB, MB instead of Gb, Mb

• Product: [OLD] Docs-user
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Stefano Pacella (RETIRED) 2004-12-04 08:09:25 UTC]

some typo of new Use GB, MB instead of Gb, Mb

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

[Comment 1 Stefano Pacella (RETIRED) 2004-12-04 08:10:43 UTC]

Created attachment 45271 [details, diff]
so04122004.patch

[Comment 2 John Christian Stoddart (RETIRED) 2004-12-04 10:05:51 UTC]

Just to add my 0.02 bolivars worth, typographers (such as myself) tend to frown on excessive capitalization in texts, given its obstructive (to reading) and alarmist nature. OK, I know the bolivar isn't worth anything these days, so I'll just shut up now ;)

[Comment 3 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2004-12-06 02:06:22 UTC]

Thanks! Committed.

[Comment 4 Camille Huot (RETIRED) 2004-12-07 01:26:16 UTC]

For your information, the new standard say we should use MiB, KiB... if we refer to a 1024 multiple and MB, KB... only if it is a 1000 multiple.

[Comment 5 Camille Huot (RETIRED) 2004-12-07 01:28:02 UTC]

I should have mentionned this quick reference: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

[Comment 6 Xavier Neys (RETIRED) 2004-12-07 02:32:55 UTC]

b stands for bit, B for bytes. That makes a significant difference ;-)
Unless we really need to use MiB or GiB instead of MB or GB because the difference has a real impact, I'd say we stick to MB and GB.

MiB makes me think of a movie more than a unit.

[Comment 7 John Christian Stoddart (RETIRED) 2004-12-07 03:30:51 UTC]

Whilst all the above observations are true and correct (given the origin of the url), I'd like to propose that since these abbreviations are unknown to many, especially to non-English speakers, we should use the *full* term and *not* the new abbreviations so as to avoid gratuitous confusion.

[Comment 8 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2004-12-07 08:04:12 UTC]

As I said in my initial CVS commit message:

"""
Use GB, MB instead of Gb, Mb... not real standards compliance (not IECs MiB/GiB) but more in line with most users their knowledge. This is "Typo fixing", no version increase
"""

Users don't get confused with the current abbreviations; they did a bit with the non-capitalized b (hence the update) but they'll certainly view Gentoo as Geekish if we'd use the IEC standard.