64179 - "K" should be "KB"

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core Graveyard :: Installer: XPInstall Engine, defect)

Description

[Henrik Gemal]

Sizes in the UI in the installer should not be "K" but "KB".

Comment 1

[Peter "jag" Annema]

Shouldn't that be "kB" or "kb" (but at least lower case k)?

Comment 2

[Peter "jag" Annema]

Yep. k for kilo, M for Mega, G for Giga, T for Tera, P for Peta. (SI prefixes).

As far as I know this system isn't any different for measurements in bytes.
As to "b" vs. "B", I thought b was for bits and B for bytes, but I can't find
(and doubt there is) anything authorative on that.

Comment 3

[Henrik Gemal]

I've posted a newsposting 21-06-2000 with the subject: "K, Kb, KB or kB"
and one of the responses was:
-------
IMHO, "KB" is the right one. "b" should be bits, opposed to "B" as
bytes; "k" is meaning kilo in the meaning of international SI system,
that is a multipülier of 1000, opposed to "K", which should then be used
for the 1024 multiplier.
----

Comment 4

[Peter "jag" Annema]

I can understand that reasoning, but since we're using "M", "G" and "T" I think
we're better off keeping within the system (consistancy) and using "k",
especially since the use of these factor indicators within the "bytes" context
is generally accepted to indicate 1024^n and not 1000^n.

Of course, there's still the proposal to use KiB, MiB, GiB and TiB:
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/08/10/0259245.shtml

Comment 5

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

When someone sees KB, or kB they think 1024 (2^10) bytes. The only place where 
kilo means 1000 in computers is in hard drives and that is because they are 
lying about how much space they have. Therefore, it won't matter either way, 
but I believe that the installer should use KB because it matches the MB.

Kibibyte, heh ;-)

PS. There is the chance people might confuse kB with Kb.

Comment 6

[now [e-mail]]

Non SI notation also appears in the "file download" dialog (bug 65710) 
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=65710>.

SI prefixes
m - mill (10^-3)
k - kilo (10^3)
M - mega (10^6)

Thus, kilobyte should be represented kB.  "K" actually refers to Kelvin, a unit 
of temperature.

Comment 7

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

K by itself represents Kelvin. k is kilo for unit of measurments like grams. 
For consistancy lets make everything uppercase KB, MB, TB, etc. for bit we 
could have kb, mb, tb.

Comment 8

[Henrik Gemal]

So we agree on "KB" and "MB"?

Comment 9

[Sean Su]

I've got the fix in my tree that will land along with other fixes.   There's not
"M" that I could find.  I've only found "K" and changed it to "KB".  If there
are "M"'s that I missed, please file a bug (easier to keep track).

Comment 10

[Peter "jag" Annema]

Well, no I don't agree on "KB", I still suggest consistency with the SI system
(even though a k is 1024 instead of 1000 for bytes), thus "kB". For bits I'd
suggest kbit, Mbit and Tbit.

Comment 11

[dcary]

I agree with Henrik Gemal:
"KB" for kilo bytes "MB" for mega bytes.
In some cases (modem download speeds) it might be more appropriate to use
"Kbit" for kilo bits and "Mbit" for mega bits.

For consistency, I use
uppercase letters (like M) for SI prefixes bigger than one,
lowercase letters (like m) for SI prefixes less than one.
Anything else would be inconsistent. There is a long tradition of inconsistency,
but I'd rather not encourage it.

The "mb" suggestion is clueless -- that would stand for milli bits,
which is not very useful. (Although I would be very interested in anything that
actually used milli bits; I'm very close to publishing a paper that I believe
uses that term for the first time in print).

Comment 12

[Peter "jag" Annema]

> For consistency, I use
> uppercase letters (like M) for SI prefixes bigger than one,
> lowercase letters (like m) for SI prefixes less than one.
> Anything else would be inconsistent. There is a long tradition
> of inconsistency, but I'd rather not encourage it.

Either way you're being inconsistent. With your proposal you're being 
inconsistent with the case of the SI prefixes (k, M, G, T) you're using.

Comment 13

[timeless]

these are computer bits. they aren't si units. we'll ignore si.

KB, MB. 

Comment 14

[Sean Su]

Patch will be attached to bug 66480 to eliminate duplicating patch attachments.

Comment 15

[Sean Su]

fixed.

Comment 16

[Henrik Gemal]

Missing in the "Disk Space Check" dialog...
Which also has some weird indenting...

btw: the title is "Disk space check" shouldn't that be "Disk Space Check" ?

Comment 17

[Sean Su]

Attachment: path #1

Comment 18

[Sean Su]

I'm not sure about the Disk Space Check title.  Please file a different bug if
you feel it should be capitalized.

Comment 19

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Can't go for this one due to the evil strcats. KB may need to be translated as 
well (especially in asian languages). Can't you move the KB\n stuff into the 
resourced string?

Comment 20

[Henrik Gemal]

but this has already been changed in other locations of the installer. Sean just 
missed one place.
If we move "KB" out, please also move text like "Mozilla" out.

Comment 21

[Henrik Gemal]

Sean: what's the deal here? K has been changed to KB other places.
Dan is complaining about strcats. What should be done?

Comment 22

[timeless]

dveditz: if ssu promises to fix the strcats w/in 2 weeks can the current patch 
be checked in?

Comment 23

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

It's easier to fix this the right way than to fix it twice.  The code is 
already using wsprintf() to put the message together, all you have to do is 
move the "kb\n" part into IDS_DLG_DISK_SPACE_CHECK_MSG and 
IDS_DLG_DISK_SPACE_CHECK_CRUTIAL_MSG

Comment 24

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

What's the urgency anyway? It's been wrong for so long why does this patch need 
to be rushed in?

Comment 25

[Sean Su]

fixed.

Comment 26

[Henrik Gemal]

Seems fixed
build 20010618 on win2k

Comment 27

[Philip Chee]

I don't think this code currently exists in SeaMonkey either :P
Moving to Core (is there a Core::Graveyard?).