UnitsWASM Convertor

3 min read Original article ↗

We do not collect any data.

We do not use any tracking or profiling tools and platforms.

We do not use any third-party services.

This app does not collect any information, does not use cookies and does not make any network requests to the Internet.

For more informaction and to check what's under the hood see the GitHub repo.

This app is based on GNU Units - a Unit Conversion Program and Scientific Calculator. The help section is almost fully copied from the original manual page. And it actually uses the original program for making all the calculations. To make this work, the original C code for the units command line utility was ported to WebAssembly (using the emscripten compiler and toolchain) and is used as a back-end for doing all the conversions and calculations.

The interface is built using Bootstrap 5 and SortableJS.

The the html, css and javascript code were converted to a native app format using Apache Cordova

Most units data was drawn from:

  1. NIST Special Publication 811, Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI). Barry N. Taylor. 2008 https://www.nist.gov/pml/special-publication-811
  2. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 70th edition
  3. Oxford English Dictionary
  4. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
  5. Units of Measure by Stephen Dresner
  6. A Dictionary of English Weights and Measures by Ronald Zupko
  7. British Weights and Measures by Ronald Zupko
  8. Realm of Measure by Isaac Asimov
  9. United States standards of weights and measures, their creation and creators by Arthur H. Frazier.
  10. French weights and measures before the Revolution: a dictionary of provincial and local units by Ronald Zupko
  11. Weights and Measures: their ancient origins and their development in Great Britain up to AD 1855 by FG Skinner
  12. The World of Measurements by H. Arthur Klein
  13. For Good Measure by William Johnstone
  14. NTC's Encyclopedia of International Weights and Measures by William Johnstone
  15. Sizes by John Lord
  16. Sizesaurus by Stephen Strauss
  17. CODATA Recommended Values of Physical Constants available at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Constants/index.html
  18. How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. Available at http://www.ibiblio.org/units/
  19. Numericana. http://www.numericana.com
  20. UK history of measurement http://www.ukmetrication.com/history.htm
  21. NIST Handbook 44, Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and MeasuringDevices. 2011
  22. NIST Special Publication 447, Weights and Measures Standards of the the United States: a brief history. Lewis V. Judson. 1963; rev. 1976
  23. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 96th edition
  24. Dictionary of Scientific Units, 6th ed. H.G. Jerrard and D.B. McNeill. 1992
  25. NIST Special Publication 330, The International System of Units (SI). ed. Barry N. Taylor and Ambler Thompson. 2008 https://www.nist.gov/pml/special-publication-330
  26. BIPM Brochure, The International System of Units (SI). 9th ed., 2019 https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/