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LGiki / gnome-shell-extension-simple-system-monitor

🖥️ Show current CPU usage, memory usage and net speed on panel
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4506/simple-system-monitor/
GNU General Public License v2.0
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[Feature request] : allow user to choose between bits/s and bytes/s #15

Open benintech opened 11 months ago

benintech commented 11 months ago

I believe right now the speed is shown in bytes/s (and multiples of : KBytes/s, MBytes/s, ...). Could you please add an option to shown them in bits/s and multiples of ?

LGiki commented 10 months ago

Thank you for the feature request. Could you share your usage scenario? Currently we show network speed in units like KBytes/s, MBytes/s abbreviated as K/s, M/s. If using Kbits/s, Mbits/s units, we need differentiation by showing as KB/s, MB/s and Kb/s, Mb/s. This would make the already limited space in the top bar appear more crowded.

benintech commented 10 months ago

Thanks for your reply and interest.

Usage scenario : well, I believe that bit/s (and multiples of) are the most used units for speed (bytes being used rather for file sizes). It's for example what's used by telco operators to advertise there speed. Take for example Verizon in the US, Free in France, or AIS in Thailand. I've never seen an operator advertise internet speeds in bytes/s. Same thing for hardware, like switches or network interfaces, they advertise their speeds in bits/s (for example a 10/100/1000 NIC, or a 10 Gbits/s switch). So, it makes sense to see the speed in bits/s (and multiples of) on your computer as well.

Right now I am using a dedicated extension for network speed because, well, bit/s are what I am used to. If your extension had this option I would use that to monitor my speed.

As for the limited space, there are several approaches. One could be to use lowercase letters for bits/s (e.g. k/s, m/s, g/s) and uppercase for bytes/s (K/s, M/s, G/s).

Another approach would be to not differentiate at all, and always use uppercase letters. It's up to the user to know what's shown, according to the settings of the extension. E.g., up to the user to know if M/s designates Mbits/s or Mbytes/s. Actually, that's the approach I'd prefer, because to differentiate bytes and bits through uppercase/lowercase is not standardized. Network operators for example use uppercase letters to designate Kbits/s, MBits/s, and so on.

To save even more screen space, you could also add an option to not show the /s part. It's up to the user to interpret what he sees : for me, something like ↓3.5M ↑148K is sufficient to know that my current speeds are 3.5 Mbits/s down and 148 Kbit/s up, provided that in my settings I chose to display the speeds in bits/s. I created a separate issue for that.