GNU bug report logs - #75649
dd: report base 1024 for bytes per second

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Message #17 received at 75649 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Chris Ely <chris.ely <at> gmail.com>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: P <at> draigbrady.com, 75649 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#75649: dd: report base 1024 for bytes per second
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:33:57 -0500

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Thank you for the links to the older bugs.

I'm still of the opinion that introducing base 10 output, in the realm of
files that are always stored in base 2 sized blocks, is a mistake that only
confuses people using dd unnecessarily.

On Tue, Jan 21, 2025, 12:37 Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> 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/
>

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