Re: Finder File Size discrepancy..
Re: Finder File Size discrepancy..
- Subject: Re: Finder File Size discrepancy..
- From: Conrad Shultz <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:46:35 -0800
On 12/27/11 2:38 PM, Robert Monaghan wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I was aware of the inflated numbers for marketing hard drives. But I
> wasn't aware that Apple jumped on the marketing bandwagon. (Apple
> adopt marketing terms? Never..)
While *we* understand the distinction between base-2 and base-10, the
overwhelming majority of users don't know, don't care, and *shouldn't*
have to care.
Using base-10 isn't going to cause any problems (other than for software
developers who, let's face it, make a career out of handling problems),
so in this case it gives a better user experience to just use base-10.
(And, as has been pointed out, the SI prefixes are reserved for base-10
anyway, so this isn't really even consistency at the sake of accuracy.)
I would actually take this a step further: for most (but perhaps not an
"overwhelming majority") users and situations, displaying file size at
all degrades user experience. Rarely do I want to know "how large is a
file?" More often I want to know something like:
* Will a file fit on a storage medium?
* How long will it take a file to download?
* What percentage of a file do I already have?
* (Implicitly) can I manipulate the contents of the file without slowing
my computer down?
Even on this mailing list I suspect that there are a number of people
who couldn't say - without checking - how much free disk space they have
or what their network throughput to some arbitrary remote host is.
Without knowing these other data then file size is basically useless.
So: in most cases, I would argue it is better to display the pertinent
information, not the file size.
(I needn't get into the conversation about whether we (read: users)
should even be still thinking in terms of a 1980s office metaphor with
files, folders, and desktops.)
--
Conrad Shultz
Synthetiq Solutions
www.synthetiqsolutions.com
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