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Subject:Byte abbreviations From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Mon, 9 Jun 1997 12:31:17 -0500
Rikki Mitman wondered <<I'm looking for consensus on the
abbreviation of things like megabyte and gigabyte, which
are typically represented as mb and gb (or, to my
dismay, MB, Mb GB, and Gb). To me, these are abbreviations,
*not* acronyms, and should not be capped.>>
Sorry to have to dismay you <grin>, but M/G/m/k represent
standard international SI (metric) and scientific
conventions. Cap-M = mega (million), cap-G = giga (U.S. but
not U.K. billion), lower-case g = grams, lower-case m =
milli (one one-thousandth), lower-case k = kilo (thousand),
and cap-K = Kelvins (units of temperature). So cap-M,
cap-G, and lower-case k are correct and standard. Strictly
speaking, your examples are the type of abbreviation known
as an initialism (i.e., an unpronouncable acronym), but
that's a red herring here. In any event, abbreviations are
often capped (e.g., MS-DOS, in which MS = Microsoft),
though the practice varies from industry to industry and
(sometimes) publication to publication.
As for bits and bytes, there's an unofficial standard in
the computer press that the big (cap) B stands for byte (8
bits), whereas the small (lower-case) b stands for bit
(just one). This is not to my knowledge an international
standard, nor is it used consistently in all cases, but
it's a sensible solution that is worth using IMHO.
Hope that helps.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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