Re: bin/42940: units(1) parsing glitch

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR bin/42940; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: bin/42940: units(1) parsing glitch
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:17:27 +0700

     Date:        Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:50:05 +0000 (UTC)
     From:        Dave Huang <khym%azeotrope.org@localhost>
     Message-ID:  <20100310095005.1A22963B873%www.NetBSD.org@localhost>
 
 
   |  /usr/share/misc/units.lib doesn't define "h" as a synonym for "hour".
 
 No, nor should it, 'h' is only used for hour in a very few restricted
 usages.
 
 units doesn't define 'k' for kilometres either, yet if someone one
 day is going to wonder why units can't convert k/h into m/h (for that
 matter, "m" is metre, not mile, so ...)
 
 If you're already thinking about speeds (or perhaps velocities) then
 k/h (or kph) and m/h (or mph) are obvious - to you, but if you're
 thinking crop yields, then k/h might be kilogrammes per hectare (or
 something...)
 
 Just leave units alone in this case, nothing needs fixing except the
 usage expectation.   The man page shows using full names of units,
 any time things don't work quite like you'd hope when you use a
 (perhaps very common, but usually ambiguous without context) abbreviation
 it can always be fixed by just using the full name of the unit of concern.
 
 That's good enough - don't make it start giving out incorrect answers
 because it has started to guess what you might have meant.
 
 kre