Matthias Schabel wrote:
The rationale for this approach is that a kilometer in the MKS system really is 1000 meters, just as a kilobyte is 2^10 bytes...
Poking my head into the discussion with a completely offtopic comment: This is "incorrect" as a matter of standards and clear communication. kilo = 10^3 in the MKS (SI) system, never ever 1024. The IEEE recommends a list of "binary prefixes" (IEC 60027-2/IEEE 1541) for computer usage. For instance, "Kibi" for 1024, with prefix Ki. Similarly for Mebi, Gibi, etc. I heartily recommend this practice for reduction of ambiguity, and I note that it is (very) slowly catching on around the Net. It's also the subject of a legal standardization process in the EU (prEN 60027-2:2006) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1541 Of course, this has no bearing on the library under discussion :-) Back to lurking ... -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin Lynch voice: (617) 353-6025 Physics Department Fax: (617) 353-9393 Boston University office: PRB-361 590 Commonwealth Ave. e-mail: krlynch@bu.edu Boston, MA 02215 USA http://budoe.bu.edu/~krlynch -------------------------------------------------------------------------------