Custom layperson-friendly format size

[vjr]

The GLib.format_size () function returns a single decimal place such as 16.0 GiB (for memory) and 512.1 GB (for storage) while this PR returns 16 GB and 512 GB instead, with the intent of being user-friendly for the layperson. Returns "GB" instead of "GiB" (for example) even if IEC_UNITS is requested.

Before:

After:

[vjr]

I'm not sure if anything further needs to be done for the newly added translate strings?

[tintou]

I'm -1 on this, we have to use the right unit.

[tintou]

From the GLib documentation:

use IEC (base 1024) units with "KiB"-style suffixes. IEC units should only be used for reporting things with a strong "power of 2" basis, like RAM sizes or RAID stripe sizes. Network and storage sizes should be reported in the normal SI units.

[vjr]

@tintou yes I understand your -1 on this :-)

This proposed PR was for the "average everyday layperson" who might see "GiB" for memory and "GB" for storage and wonder what the "GiB" indicates?

For people who don't know/understand the difference between IEC/SI mebi versus mega bytes , for example?

[tintou]

If people don't know the difference I feel like they can search on their own if they are really interested in this :)

I'm sure that if they don't understand it, they are anyway seeing the unit as a opaque thing so there is no difference between MiB and MB for them 🙃

[vjr]

@tintou how does it look now? (both code and screenshot?)

[vjr]

If people don't know the difference I feel like they can search on their own if they are really interested in this :)

I'm sure that if they don't understand it, they are anyway seeing the unit as a opaque thing so there is no difference between MiB and MB for them upside_down_face

Personally I don't agree with "no difference between SI and IEC for ordinary users" - I think (I guess) average user knows what "MB" and "GB" are but not "MiB" and "GiB" which is why I prefer showing SI units for the memory label too, but not a strong opinion.

[vjr]

Note to self - TODO update comment to reflect change in whether to show IEC unit.

[vjr]

I just looked at my Windows and Android devices and they show the memory capacity unit as GB and not GiB even though the value is of course IEC.

I searched on Google for screenshots of system information sections on macOS and iOS and there too it's GB instead of GiB.

I know this is a nitpick PR to propose but whenever I look at the current hardware view in OS 6.1 showing "15.7 GiB memory" instead of the proposed "16 GB memory" it triggers some sort of OCD in me :-P

[avojak]

Just my 2¢ but I think it’s a good change. I can’t think of the last time I saw a computer advertised using GiB of RAM. I don’t have any evidence at all to back this up, but I think a "layperson" would be more confused seeing 15.7 GiB and wondering what happened to the other 0.3. I don’t like the argument that a user should go look up the difference themselves. Is GB the most technically accurate? No, but it doesn’t need to be in this case. In this context, I would expect my system to report in a format that matches how it would be advertised or generally discussed. If someone really cares that much, there are other system utilities to find exact numbers and whatnot.

[vjr]

Updated the PR back to the original proposal like here: #252 (comment)

[vjr]

Thanks @lenemter for the approval. I'll wait for maybe @danirabbit to comment on whether this change gets merged?

[tintou]

If the consensus is to merge it (which I'm still not convinced), here are a few things to fix before

[vjr]

Thank you @tintou for the review.

I can look into address this over the weekend but might need help with the ngettext and i18n - anyone? Maybe @lenemter would you?

[lenemter]

@vjr I've looked at GLib.format_size source code (https://github.com/GNOME/glib/blob/main/glib/gutils.c#L2837) and edited your function a bit to make it as translatable as GLib one:

    private string custom_format_size (uint64 size, bool iec_unit) {
        uint divisor = iec_unit ? 1024 : 1000;

        string[] units = {_("KB"), _("MB"), _("GB"), _("TB"), _("PB")};

        int unit_index = 0;

        while ((size / divisor) > 0 && (unit_index < units.length)) {
            unit_index++;
            size /= divisor;
        }

        string unit;
        if (unit_index == 0) {
            // TRANSLATORS: Examples of use: "1 byte", "13 bytes"
            unit = ngettext ("byte", "bytes", (ulong) size);
        } else {
            unit = units[unit_index - 1];
        }

        /* TRANSLATORS: The first "%llu" is replaced with the value, the "%s" with a unit of the value.
           The order can be changed with "%$2s %$1llu". An example: "13 bytes" */
        return _("%llu %s").printf (size, unit);
    }

[vjr]

Thanks @lenemter for the code! @tintou would you re-review?

Addressed and approved.