On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 05:09:47PM +0100, Nicolas George wrote:
Michael Stone (12020-12-23):
No, network speeds are traditionally measured in bits because networks
transferred data in bits and telcos dealt with bits, and they sold and
billed bits. Computer internals were measured in bytes and words because
they transferred data in bytes and words. Some people do now talk about
network speeds for computers in byte units, but you're really just swapping
one source of confusion for another when you do that. (There's an immense
amount of existing tooling for network-related information that already uses
bits, so everything that decides bytes are better for networking requires
conversion when dealing with most other networking tools even if it
eliminates conversion when dealing with filesystem or memory tools.) There
isn't one "right answer" that magically simplifies communications.
I read this paragraph as the defense of a cargo cult.
You may certainly read it as you wish, nevertheless I'll continue to
explain why things are measured in different ways in different domains
without resorting to baseless conspiracy theories. I'm also mostly
interested in communicating with actual people, so regardless of whether
you believe you have a superior approach that is more logical than the
way language is used by other people is irrelevant to me--I find it more
productive to be as clear as possible within the bounds of common
usage than to insist that everyone else should change. YMMV, have fun
with your crusade.
