GiB vs. GB

[Stefanos Harhalakis]

On Friday 02 November 2007, Eike Hein wrote:
> Peter Penz wrote:
> > Any input is welcome :-) Thanks!
>
> I've been wondering in the past if we might want a KDE-wide
> option to switch between SI and traditional file size units
> in the Regional Settings, along with the other number for-
> mats preferences.
>
> Would that be useful?

  Based on personal developement experience, the best solution(tm) is a 
configuration option (as you suggest) with two options:

1KB = 1000bytes
1KB = 1024bytes

  The problem with that is that we're used to use different meanings of KB. 
For example, 2GB of memory are 2048MBs, but 100Mbps of NIC speed is 
100000Kbps. So, a single option is doomed to result in bug reports :-)
(Imagine a program saying that your 100Mbps ethernet connection is just 
95.36Mbps)

  I believe that kde needs a KB/Byte ratio for some major categories like:

* Network speed (NIC speed): Always 1Kbit == 1000bit 
* Network transfer (File transfer speed): Configurable
* Ram size: Always 1Kb == 1024bytes
* Ram usage: Always (?) 1kb == 1024bytes
* Disk size: Configurable
* etc...