Re: GUC time unit spelling a bit inconsistent

Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, 21. Juni 2007 00:38 schrieb Gregory Stark:
>>> I think people are worried that an 'm' in one column might mean something
>>> different than an 'm' in another column, and perhaps that is confusing.
>> To whom? the person writing it?
>
> If everyone around here had gotten their way we'd already be in a situation
> were you could write
>
> log_rotation_age = 5m
> log_rotation_size = 5m

There are valid reasons against 5m as mega-bytes, because here m does
not refer to a unit, it refers to a quantifier (if that is a reasonable
English word) of a unit. So it should really be 5mb.

log_rotation_age = 5m
log_rotation_size = 5mb

That is quite clear now, except, I admit, that the first could be
mistaken to mean 5 months, and perhaps this is a valid reason to not
allow 'm' for minutes. Nothing about meters here, though.

> Btw.: I'm currently at DebConf in Edinburgh. On Scottish motorway
> signage, "5m" means "five miles". Even the Americans do that better. So,
> no, you can't have "m" for "minutes". ;)

Even with the ;) here and the context, the last sentence sounds to me
quite arrogant. Most people here have tried to bring arguments and
reasoning... you put it off with irrelevant anecdotes in the wrong context.

Best Regards
Michael Paesold