Should Calc predefined units table include information units?

Should Calc predefined units table include information units?

[Mitchell Perilstein]

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Summary

    Calc's predefined `math-standard-units` table does not include
information units: bits, bytes,
    data rates, and SI/IEC multiples thereof.  I argue that it should, and
offer to implement them.

Motivations

    a. The predefined Calc units table is mostly physical base units and
derivations. But in recent
    times, it's been widely suspected that information theory forms reality
and somehow underlies
    those base units.

    b. Information units are encountered often by many users in daily
practical use. It's curious
    that you can use Calc to compute Yottabarns per fathom but not the
kilobytes needed to write it
    to disk.

Package vs Predefined

    The first question should be, why not make a package defining info
units to
    `calc-additional-units` and put that on Elpa? We can, and if people
think this is a bad idea I
    will put out a package.  But I'm proposing this addition belongs in
Emacs as above.

Proposed Scope

    Again from a practical standpoint, the scope can be limited to common
computing use: it might
    be too far afield to implement the exotic information units such as
Erlangs.  So I'm proposing
    a practical subset:

    * lisp/calc/calc-units.el: add to `math-standard-units` table...
        - `bits` as base unit
        - bytes `B` as derived unit.  Note Barns exists as `b` but this is
all consistent.
        - decimal derived byte units (SI), ie powers of 1000, with SI
prefixes
        - binary byte units (IEC), ie powers of 1024, with IEC prefixes
like kibi and mebi
        - bps rate unit, 1 bit/sec
        - Bps rate unit, 1 byte/sec
        - decimal derived rate units: kbps mbps gbps tbps pbps ebps zbps
ybps
        - binary derived rate units: kibps mibps gibps tibps pibps eibps
zibps yibps
    * doc/misc/calc.texi - add a paragraph in 11.3, Predefined Units,
explaining the predefined binary
      and decimal information units
    * test/lisp/calc/calc-tests.el
    * Changelog

    If the group thinks this is a good idea, I'll work on a patch as
above.  Thanks for reading.

References

    * https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iec:80000:-13:ed-1:v1:en -
Unfortunately the IEC standard is paywalled
    *
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Units_of_information#Units_derived_from_bit
    * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rate

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Re: Should Calc predefined units table include information units?

[Stefan Monnier]

>     The first question should be, why not make a package defining info
>     units to `calc-additional-units` and put that on Elpa? We can, and
>     if people think this is a bad idea I will put out a package.
>     But I'm proposing this addition belongs in Emacs as above.

Please add it directly to Calc rather than as a separate add-on.

> Proposed Scope
[...]
>     If the group thinks this is a good idea, I'll work on a patch as
>     above.  Thanks for reading.

Looks like a very good plan to me, looking forward to the patch,

AFAICT you have not yet signed any copyright paperwork, so to make sure
your patch can be installed once it's ready you might like to get
started on this as well.  For that, please fill the form below and email
it to the FSF as instructed so they can send you the relevant paperwork
to sign.  Thanks,


        Stefan


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Re: Should Calc predefined units table include information units?

[Mitchell Perilstein]

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Stefan, thanks for your input.

Yes, I will proceed with this change, and yes I've filed for the assignment
form.

Best!

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