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Date:      Sun, 18 Jul 2004 09:14:58 -0600 (MDT)
From:      Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To:        Leonard Zettel <zettel@acm.org>
Cc:        "Simon L. Nielsen" <simon@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Mouseover definitions for acronyms (was Re: RFC: initialisms and FDP)
Message-ID:  <20040718090746.D21197@wonkity.com>
In-Reply-To: <200407181009.59919.zettel@acm.org>
References:  <20040713074042.GA5126@abigail.blackend.org> <20040718100224.GA84500@abigail.blackend.org> <200407181009.59919.zettel@acm.org>

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On Sun, 18 Jul 2004, Leonard Zettel wrote:

> In my opinion, the best thing to do with acronyms is minimize their use.
> Remembering what NIS means puts an extra distracting burden on
> the reader, especially if they are already struggling to assimilate a
> lot of new concepts, which is likely the case, or they wouldn't
> be reading the material in the first place.

Acronyms and other forms of jargon have a purpose; for instance, an 
acronym is one "thing" to remember, rather than a phrase.

> I am willing to concede that in some cases usage has extended to
> the point where the acronym *is* the word (ftp comes to mind).

Many of the acronyms for the glossary are like that.

While I like the mouseover idea, I don't understand the need for 
multiple ones.  Why not just have the first occurrence of a term be both 
a link to the glossary and also have the mouseover definition?

(I say this having learned the hard way with <application> tags.  More 
than one is visually distracting.)

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA



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