[Nagiosplug-devel] Re: Nagiosplug-devel digest, Vol 1 #654 - 7 msgs

[Andreas Ericsson]

Yves Mettier wrote:
>>
>>There's a standards document for this, but those rules are broken so
>>often it's hard to remember what's real from time to time...
>>
>>Anyways, for the more common ones;
>>M = Mega = 1000000
>>K = Kilo = 1000 (Kelvin (temperature) if printed alone)
>>Ki = binary Kilo = 1024
>>B = byte
>>b = bit
>>m = milli
>>u = micro
>>n = nano
> 
> 
> For mega and kilo, isn't it "m" and "k" ?
> 

'm' is milli. 'k' is indeed 'kilo' (1000), but never in a binary 
context. However, I was taught to use capitals for multiples of the 
basic unit, and small chars (what are those called?) for those denoting 
parts of the whole.

Take for example '10ms' (as 10 milliseconds, although some ugrian 
friends of mine think that means meters). In this case we're using 
seconds as the unit of measurement. The 'm' adds readability to the 
precision, even though it could just as easily have been written as 
0.01s. It gets more obvious with nano- and pico-seconds.

For a more complete list, have a look at
http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/dictunit/dictunit.htm#SI
Especially for the basic units of measurement. I think cd could be 
useful to implement, although we might have to complete the list of 
temperature units. (degc, degf and degk?).

> Yves

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson at op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Lead Developer