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A comment on Why Software Systems Must Default to the Metric System.

Re:Why Software Systems Must Default to the Metric System by jjp on Tuesday November 18, 2025 @07:09AM (#45964386)
If globally we collectively used metric for all units then this becomes realistic. But whilst we have different units being used and a person needs to view this is going to happen.

If the output of a sensor that records in metric, then needs to be viewed in imperial it needs to be converted. Is it better to convert at write or read time always depends on use case and geography. Or do we just force the human in the loop to know that the speed limit is 112km/h even though it’s non digitally signposted at 70.

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Re:Why Software Systems Must Default to the Metric System by xscott on Tuesday November 18, 2025 @08:12AM (#45965295)
Hours aren't SI/metric. That factor of 3600 makes any conversion to acceleration more ugly than it should be (rounding a curve for instance). And really, 30 meters/second would a nice human readable number.

Even in science though, the pros are happy to switch to electron volts or units where the speed of light equals 1.

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