Re: [BUGS] BUG #14244: wrong suffix for pg_size_pretty()

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> Interesting.  I think that our documentation should only describe the
> way we use unit suffixes in one central place, but other places (like
> pg_size_pretty) could link to that central place.

> I don't believe that there is any general unanimity among users or
> developers about the question of which suffixes devote units
> denominated in units of 2^10 bytes vs. 10^3 bytes.  About once a year,
> somebody makes an argument that we're doing it wrong, but the evidence
> that I've seen is very mixed.  So when people say that there is only
> one right way to do this and we are not in compliance with that one
> right way, I guess I just don't believe it.  Not everybody likes the
> way we do it, but I am fairly sure that if we change it, we'll make
> some currently-unhappy people happy and some currently-happy people
> unhappy.  And the people who don't care but wanted to preserve
> backward compatibility will all be in the latter camp.

That's about my position too: I cannot see that changing this is going
to make things better to a degree that would justify breaking backwards
compatibility.

> However, that is not to say that the documentation couldn't be better.

+1; your idea above seems sound.
        regards, tom lane