4 ms·
Every time I read this story the part that always surprises me again is the units command. Converting from 3 millilightseconds to miles is brilliant, and I am d
by sudobash1 3y ago
Every time I read this story the part that always surprises me again is the units command. Converting from 3 millilightseconds to miles is brilliant, and I am delighted every time that the units command can do this.
- dredmorbius 3y agokragen posted a several of excellent comments highlighting the capabilities of GNU Units a couple of months back, these two in particular: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36988917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36988917> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36995046 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36995046> And Trey Harris's "500 mile email" story is what clued me on to GNU units and its capabilities. Reminder: if you're on MacOS, or one of the BSDs, your default units is from BSD, not the GNU version, and is far less capable. GNU units can be installed on MacOS through Homebrew. The package is "gnu-units", the command is "gunits" once installed. Edit: Corrected Homebrew package name.
- RobotToaster 3y agoIt's also in chocolatey for windows
- dredmorbius 3y agoShould also be in Cygwin as well as be installable through WSL. (I've not touched MS Windows in a couple of decades now.)
- dementik 3y agoActually, brew install gnu-units
- dredmorbius 3y agoGah! Thanks, corrected above. (I run the command far more often than I install the package.)
- chungy 3y agoGNU Units is also available in FreeBSD ports, just type "pkg install units" (or go to /usr/ports/math/units and "make install"). It likewise gets the binary name "gunits"
- ashton314 3y agoMy units command (on macOS) doesn't have it. :/ Is there a better version out there?
- drpossum 3y agoYes, you want the gnu units. It's in homebrew as gnu-units (and you run it as gunits)
- searealist 3y agoHe made the story up. When confronted with the fact that units didn't convert some of the units from his story his response was essentially "Oh yeah, well of course I always supplemented my units definitions on all my machines with obscure units.".
- Cyphase 3y agoDo you have a source for that? EDIT: #19 here https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html
- searealist 3y agoCheck his own FAQ.
- vore 3y agoI don't think that's enough evidence to claim he made the whole story up.
- chungy 3y agoThese potential anachronisms are easy to insert when retelling a story. It doesn't really mean he "made it up", but reverse engineering how the diagnostic was determined might lead one to use tools/definitions that didn't exist at the time. It's also entirely plausible that a local definitions file was used to provide the unit that didn't come in the default install. Hence the anachronism is merely "potential" instead of "definite"
- dmckeon 3y agoAnyone who likes the units command should plan an evening where they can sit in a comfortable chair with an appropriate beverage, and read all the comments in the data file in the source. It is like a novel about the history of measurement.
- WillAdams 3y agoIf only it had been written as a Literate Program, it would have been.