[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH 11/12] doc: Fix broken Engish in the common options description

Stefano Sabatini stefasab at gmail.com
Sat Mar 30 23:05:42 CET 2013


On date Saturday 2013-03-30 15:32:58 -0400, Derek Buitenhuis encoded:
> Signed-off-by: Derek Buitenhuis <derek.buitenhuis at gmail.com>
> ---
>  doc/avtools-common-opts.texi |   18 +++++++++---------
>  1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/doc/avtools-common-opts.texi b/doc/avtools-common-opts.texi
> index b6e11bf..efd64d4 100644
> --- a/doc/avtools-common-opts.texi
> +++ b/doc/avtools-common-opts.texi
> @@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
> -All the numerical options, if not specified otherwise, accept in input
> -a string representing a number, which may contain one of the
> -SI unit prefixes, for example 'K', 'M', 'G'.
> -If 'i' is appended after the prefix, binary prefixes are used,

> +All the numerical options, if not specified otherwise, accept
> +a string representing a number as input, which may contain one of the
> +following SI unit suffixes: 'K', 'M', 'G'.

Not equivalent, this suggests that only those suffixes are recognized.

All the numerical options, if not specified otherwise, accept a string
representing a number as input, which may be followed by one of the SI
unit prefixes, for example 'K', 'M', 'G'.
...

"prefix" is favored over "suffix", because this is the term SI
prefixes are universally referenced to in the scientific/engineering
community.

See commit:

commit 2bf794b69820273e2284d69e9b9c98f5b7136add
Author: Marcus Stollsteimer <sto.mar at web.de>
Date:   Mon Nov 19 21:39:20 2012 +0100

    doc: avtools-common-opts: Fix terminology concerning metric prefixes
    
    'k', 'M', and 'G' are SI (unit) prefixes or metric prefixes,
    not 'number postfixes'. Also, the statement regarding binary
    prefixes ("powers of 2 are used instead of powers of 10")
    might be misinterpreted (1 kB = 10^3 B, but 1 KiB != 2^3 B).
    
    Signed-off-by: Diego Biurrun <diego at biurrun.de>

> +If 'i' is appended to the suffix, binary suffixes are used,
>  which are based on powers of 1024 instead of powers of 1000.
> -The 'B' postfix multiplies the value by 8, and can be
> -appended after a unit prefix or used alone. This allows using for
> -example 'KB', 'MiB', 'G' and 'B' as number postfix.
> +The 'B' suffix multiplies the value by 8, and can be
> +appended after a unit suffix or used alone. This allows using for
> +example 'KB', 'MiB', 'G' and 'B' as number suffix.

About "binary suffixes", the correct term is "prefixes for binary
multiplies", see for example:
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

So I suggest something like:

If 'i' is appended to the SI unit prefix, the complete prefix must be
interpreted as a unit prefix for binary multiplies, which is based on
powers of 1024 instead of powers of 1000. ...

Unfortunately not still very clear, and a bit verbose, so feel free to
propose something better.

>  
>  Options which do not take arguments are boolean options, and set the
>  corresponding value to true. They can be set to false by prefixing
> -with "no" the option name, for example using "-nofoo" in the
> -command line will set to false the boolean option with name "foo".
> +the option name with "no". For example using "-nofoo"
> +will set the boolean option with name "foo" to false.

...
-- 
FFmpeg = Fierce Fancy Mastodontic Pitiful Elitist Ghost


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