June 5, 2012 at 9:34 am
An acronym is always unknown to someone. Think of the new guy who might never have heard or seen it before.
Also, Google is fallible. There are many acronyms used in texting that have multiple meanings. That, too, hinders communication.
Yes, I must have been a high school English teacher.
June 5, 2012 at 9:36 am
decern
Discern
Sorry. Stuff like that bothers me.
June 5, 2012 at 9:44 am
David Moutray (6/5/2012)
An acronym is always unknown to someone. Think of the new guy who might never have heard or seen it before.Also, Google is fallible. There are many acronyms used in texting that have multiple meanings. That, too, hinders communication.
Yes, I must have been a high school English teacher.
Yes, Google and Bing are fallible, but I haven't failed to find possibilities for unknown acronyms. If I have have several to chose from, I then use the context of the article or post to try and figure it out. If I still can't, then I'll ask for the definition. This could be me, but I tend to remember things better if I do the work rather than have it handed to me. I've been out of the Air Force 30 years now, but I still remember when NOT to wear a name tag on my uniform because I had to figure out why my answer was wrong that day when I went before the BTZ Board (BTZ - Below the Zone).
June 5, 2012 at 9:49 am
Fair enough. You should do the work. I should do the work. However, we should not make others do the work. Define your acronyms where you use them. (Better still, don't use them.) Your documents will be easier to read. That is all I am saying.
June 5, 2012 at 9:57 am
David Moutray (6/5/2012)
Fair enough. You should do the work. I should do the work. However, we should not make others do the work. Define your acronyms where you use them. (Better still, don't use them.) Your documents will be easier to read. That is all I am saying.
I will define an acronym the first time I use it, but I'm not going to spell it out every time I use it in an article, paper, or post. I'm sorry, if I have defined it the first time I use it and the reader can't be bothered to look back if they can't remember it, not my problem.
June 5, 2012 at 11:43 am
David Moutray (6/5/2012)
An acronym is always unknown to someone. Think of the new guy who might never have heard or seen it before.
Agreed! And abbreviations are just as dangerous.
I'm so glad that we have sites like hypertexttransferprotocol://StructuredQueryLanguageServerCentral.CommercialDomain, with people like you, to help keep us from making these awful mistakes!
--
Adam Machanic
whoisactive
June 7, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Adam Machanic (6/4/2012)
I'm pretty sure that was the AVN show, not PASS. And they were talking about colons, not commas.
Ew.
June 7, 2012 at 12:47 pm
David Moutray (6/5/2012)
An acronym is always unknown to someone. Think of the new guy who might never have heard or seen it before.Also, Google is fallible. There are many acronyms used in texting that have multiple meanings. That, too, hinders communication.
Yes, I must have been a high school English teacher.
"YMMV" is an initialism, not an acronym. :Whistling: :ducks:
June 7, 2012 at 12:51 pm
jeffem (6/7/2012)
Adam Machanic (6/4/2012)
I'm pretty sure that was the AVN show, not PASS. And they were talking about colons, not commas.
Ew.
Glad someone around here gets my jokes. (Even if they suck. ... oh wait, bad timing on that. No pun intended! :-D)
--
Adam Machanic
whoisactive
June 7, 2012 at 1:02 pm
I'm so glad that we have sites like hypertexttransferprotocol://StructuredQueryLanguageServerCentral.CommercialDomain, with people like you, to help keep us from making these awful mistakes!
All hilarity aside, the point is that your writing and your code should communicate as clearly as possible and as effortlessly (for the reader) as possible. Of course, that requires more effort from us as writer's.
A good analogy for this is Steve McConnell's discussion on variable names in Code Complete. Studies have shown that short variable names correlate with more bugs. At the same time, very long variable names also correlate with more bugs. The "sweet spot" seems to be in the range of 16 to 18 characters (which is still longer than most developers make their variable names).
The point is, you want to use variable names that communicate clearly without becoming so cumbersome that they interfere with effortless understanding. Similarly, your writing should not use abbreviations when they simply make the job of typing easier. You should use variables when they help enable effortless understanding.
To take your (less than serious) example - http://qa.sqlservercentral.com communicates clearly and effortlessly, because we've all seen this sequence of characters hundreds or thousands of times. Similarly, "Your Mileage May Vary" does a better job of communicating than YMMV.
That's my point, and I am sticking to it! 🙂
June 7, 2012 at 1:31 pm
I've actually been seeing YMMV for many more years than SQL or HTTP or WWW. I know people were using YMMV in the '70s, because car ads had it in there and it became a subject of humor at that time. I got used to it at that time, and Lynn probably did too. Second-nature to us by this time.
At the same time, I usually do spell that particular one out, because I also know it's primarily an American cultural reference that's a bit dated.
So I say you're both right on this one.
Adam, on the AVN colon sucking joke: double-ewww but also double-LOL
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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