Simon Tathamsimontatham@hachyderm.io
Oct 13, 2026, 3:55 PM3e8
Replies
Colin the MathmoColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyzOct 13, 2026, 4:08 PM@simontatham I selected "Something else" ...
To me, without context, it's a string of symbols that evokes nothing immediately.
Glyphs in the void ...
- Colin the MathmoColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyzOct 13, 2026, 4:09 PM
@simontatham And suddenly I'm thinking of the villains from the Welsh valleys who were thwarted[0] by their efforts to steal a crystal with alien writing on it ...
"Quartz glyph job vex'd cwm finks"
[0] Another good word.
Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.spaceOct 13, 2026, 4:24 PM@simontatham we chose option two, but if we were designing a syntax we just wouldn't make this valid at all. it needs something designating it as one or the other. we personally prefer
0x3e8and3.0e8as the unambiguous formats, but there are plenty of other options, but it's important they don't overlap, letting them overlap is a disaster waiting to happen
Pianosaurus 🕴pianosaurus@c.imOct 13, 2026, 7:45 PM@ireneista @simontatham I chose option one, but agree with everything you said. But I also think that people in computer- and electronics-related fields (like myself) should not overload terms already used by maths and science in general. 3e8 being hex is a niche interpretation, and therefore should not be the default.
It's also why I think the kilo prefix should never ever mean 1024. That is an SI term, so SI owns it and gets to keep it.
- Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.spaceOct 13, 2026, 7:49 PM
@pianosaurus @simontatham it for sure depends on the context the syntax is being used in
we're big proponents of saying "kibibyte" and using the KiB notation. we wish it were more popular. presumably it won't be, until and unless somebody writes a law requiring hard drive manufacturers to pick a meaning and stick with it....