Subject: Re: bug#75649: dd: report base 1024 for bytes per second

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2025 09:37:24 -0800

On 2025-01-21 07:59, Chris Ely wrote:
> I'd
> much rather not see the base 10 numbers at all

No matter which of the two numbers we display, people preferring the 
other number will complain. This topic has come up before, multiple 
times, with people commenting at lennnngth. See:

https://bugs.gnu.org/17505
https://bugs.gnu.org/22277

I rarely see transfer rates in anything other than SI units. When 
companies market hardware, for example, they invariably use GB/s rather 
than GiB/s because this makes their transfer rates look higher. So like 
Pádraig I'm dubious about changing the transfer-rate line to use base 
1024 only.

More generally, any such proposed patch shouldn't be just to the code: 
it should explain specifically how the patch would affect dd's behavior, 
and this explanation should include changes to the documentation and the 
NEWS file. As things stand I don't know how the patch addresses the 
motivation of avoiding SI units.

[1]: 
https://www.lifestyleasia.com/hk/entertainment/gaming/nintendo-switch-2-announcement-and-updates-news/