Re: temperature standard - global config option?

Maciej Zenczykowski
2001-06-06T23:02:03Z

On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, Kipp Cannon wrote:

> If the kernel tells me the temperature is 1 (one) what should that mean?
> If it's spitting out 0.1*<temperature in K> as people are claiming the
> ACPI stuff does then 1 means 10 kelvin or 1 dekakelvin, not a
> ^^^^
> decikelvin as other people are saying they would prefer to see used. Or
> are people being braindamaged and by "0.1*K" they mean that ACPI spits out
> 10*<temperature in K>? Which would then mean that everyone does agree
> afterall that the unit should be a decikelvin although they don't
> necessarily know what multiplication means :-).

I do believe that by 0.1*K everyone means a basic unit of 0.1 K, i.e. with
an int of 1 meaning 0.1 Kelvin, analogically 0.01*K meaning an int of 1
means 0.01 Kelvin - hence the proper names of deci and centi-Kelvins.

Perosnally I believe we should take normal (32 bit) ints (perhaps more on
64bit architectures?) and encode using 0.001*K (i.e. miliKelvins),
I do believe space is not an issue here and this leaves us the most
precision and logical system - Farenhait is screwed, and
Celsius/Centigrade are not to good since don't begin at absolute zero.

Anyway just my two cents.

Maciej.