Is there someway you can convince they to reinstate this paragraph that I had in there. At least in part or full.
I'd like to see: the ISO/IEC references of the 2-nd paragraph, the standard dimensions per the ISO/IEC spec being 94 mm x 90 mm x 3.3 mm and the disk being 86 mm. Since you have gotten your foot in the door you make be able to move around more freely. I still don't know what gives someone the right to remove someone's contribution unless it obviously is in bad taste, such as profanity. So much for their so-called openness. [The term "3.5 inch floppy disc" is in fact a misnomer. Whilst the specification for 5.25 inch (130 mm) floppy discs employs Imperial units, the later specification for the smaller floppy discs employs metric units. The standards for these discs are ISO/IEC 8860-1:1987 (double density), ISO/IEC 9529-1:1989 (high density) and ISO 10994-1:1992 (extra-high density); all of which specify the measurements in metric. These standards explicitly give the dimensions as 90.0 mm by 94.0 mm. In most countries, the national standard is simply derived from the ISO standard. In the U.S., however, the applicable standard is instead ANSI X3.171-1989. That, too, specifies the measurements in metric, though. It specifies the cartridge dimensions as 90.0 mm by 94.0 mm by 3.3mm and the diameter of the magnetic disc material itself as 85.80 mm. If you have a floppy disc cartridge that does not measure 90mm, then you have one manufactured by someone that is not careful about manufacturing tolerances. (And you should beware. If their product isn't up to specification in one area, it may not be so in others.) If the disc measures 3.5 inches, then it is the wrong size. 90.0 mm is 3.5433 inches. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Gallagher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, 2004-05-22 09:54 Subject: [USMA:29904] Re: Wikipedia > Looks like I was successful in convincing one of the editors to > agree to the removal of a sentence in the "floppy disk" article > where someone stated that the reason the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk > was not marketed as 90 mm was because the public "was not > ready" for a metric sized disk. > > Given the fact that the public was "ready" for 35 mm film and 2 liter > soda bottles, they would have been ready for 90 mm disks, if they > had been given metric names from the start. > > They agreed that the decision to use an ifp designation was to > emphasize that it was smaller than the 5 1/4 inch disk, which was > the standard storage device on home computers up to that time. > Plus the first widely marketed computer with a 3 1/2 floppy drive > was the Macintosh, made by an American company. > > If the disks had been given metric identities from the start, then > that's how they would known today, most likely. > > Stephen Gallagher > >
