[time-nuts] Misuse of word "decimate" (was Re: Short term 10MHz source)

[Dana Whitlow]

I was moved to check on the terms "decimate" and "downsample" to see what
their
relative meanings are, and was disappointed to see that they are virtually
the same.

Perhaps Tom would be willing to discuss this point and suggest meanings to
be used
in this group.

Dana


On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 6:13 AM Adrian Godwin <artgodwin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Truncate, to me at least, means to shorten : ie to remove some precision by
> rounding off lower bits.
>
> I agree that the source of the word 'decimate' is unclear, but I think,
> within the field of DSP, it has a reasonably precise definition whether or
> not that corresponds with wider usage or derivation.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 12:02 PM Peter Vince <petervince1952 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In his comment below, Mark has used the word "decimate".  There is much
> > debate about what this word means (presently, and/or in the past), but
> > common explanations refer back to Roman times when they apparently killed
> > one person in ten as a punishment, and similarly "tithes" - or taxes,
> where
> > one in ten was taken.  Now OK, you can argue this until the cows come
> home,
> > but the result is that the meaning isn't crystal clear, and particularly
> on
> > a technical forum where precision is paramount, and the entire reason we
> > are here, I believe accuracy and clarity of expression is also important.
> > In this instance, I believe "truncate" would be a better word.
> >
> > </rant>  :-)
> >
> >      Regards,
> >
> >           Peter Vince
> >
> > On Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 23:56, Mark Sims <holrum at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > ...
> > > And as far as decimating the TICC output values in firmware... please
> > don't.   Let the user decimate the values if they want to.
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