Saying that people are “misusing” these functions isn’t really correct. The fact is that there is no consistent standard meaning of log(x) across all disciplines. It is a problem that certain high school textbooks often pretend there is (usually saying that log(x) is base 10), but in general it’s simply not true. Personally for me log(x) will mean whatever is appropriate at the time. I.e. during programming usually I mean log base 2. Very rarely do I use base 10. I’ve also used base 3 in the past.

The real lesson that people need to learn is that they should _always_ verify what someone means by log(x). I.e. the _only_ solution is number 1 (i.e. “read the docs”). You may say it’s wishful thinking, but we will never succeed (nor should we) at fixing the meaning of log(x) simply because it has different convenient meaning under different circumstances.