5 ms·

I'm not saying text should be full of acronyms/initialisms, but they serve a purpose of compressing the content. Maybe the chosen acronyms/initialisms don't wor

I'm not saying text should be full of acronyms/initialisms, but they serve a purpose of compressing the content. Maybe the chosen acronyms/initialisms don't work for you and that'd be a fair point.

teh_klev 3y ago
In good writing you should ideally use the full name of the thing you're going to abbreviate with the acronym in parenthesis after the initial "expanded" version. e.g. "My article is about How to Design Programs (HtDP)..." Then later the article: "In the HtDP book it mentions...." This makes life easier for those less familiar with the subject matter.
- krapp 3y ago
  This is a technical forum, it's reasonable to expect readers who discuss a thread about a specific subject of interest to be familiar with the common vernacular and idioms related to that subject. If you can't understand the initialisms, maybe that's a sign that particular thread isn't for you, and that you likely have little of value to add.
  - omnicognate 3y ago
    I've read SICP cover to cover and completed every exercise, so I recognised that one. I had to look HtDP up.
  - teh_klev 3y ago
    This is a rather short sighted and somewhat gate keeping mentality. Acronyms are often contrived and separate from the common vernacular and idioms related to a subject matter. As a software developer with a forty year career behind me I'm quite familiar with the "SICP" book. But for some reason my brain won't persist the connection between the full title and the SICP acronym when I bump into it. Yet somehow I can recall what each and every assembly language mnemonic means across a fairly broad range of micro and mini computer processors. > maybe that's a sign that particular thread isn't for you, and that you likely have little of value to add. Sure I may not have much to add, but the reason to read a thread, article or essay is to become familiar with the subject matter because it sounds interesting. Don't assume your reader is an expert in decoding your special and often made up acronyms.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    I've read and understood them both but didn't recognize them from the initials. In another comment here, someone said > TAoCP (er, Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming") I also would not have recognized TAoCP as referring to the Knuth book. Not all corners of the tech world commonly refer to tech books by their initials. That doesn't mean they have nothing useful to say about them.
    - teh_klev 3y ago
      I agree. This is another acronym I struggle to recognise when I see it despite being reasonably familiar with the first three volumes since my high school and college days back in the 80's.

I'm not saying text should be full of acronyms/initialisms, but they serve a purpose of compressing the content. Maybe the chosen acronyms/initialisms don't work for you and that'd be a fair point.

teh_klev 3y ago

In good writing you should ideally use the full name of the thing you're going to abbreviate with the acronym in parenthesis after the initial "expanded" version. e.g. "My article is about How to Design Programs (HtDP)..." Then later the article: "In the HtDP book it mentions...." This makes life easier for those less familiar with the subject matter.

krapp 3y ago
This is a technical forum, it's reasonable to expect readers who discuss a thread about a specific subject of interest to be familiar with the common vernacular and idioms related to that subject. If you can't understand the initialisms, maybe that's a sign that particular thread isn't for you, and that you likely have little of value to add.
- omnicognate 3y ago
  I've read SICP cover to cover and completed every exercise, so I recognised that one. I had to look HtDP up.
- teh_klev 3y ago
  This is a rather short sighted and somewhat gate keeping mentality. Acronyms are often contrived and separate from the common vernacular and idioms related to a subject matter. As a software developer with a forty year career behind me I'm quite familiar with the "SICP" book. But for some reason my brain won't persist the connection between the full title and the SICP acronym when I bump into it. Yet somehow I can recall what each and every assembly language mnemonic means across a fairly broad range of micro and mini computer processors. > maybe that's a sign that particular thread isn't for you, and that you likely have little of value to add. Sure I may not have much to add, but the reason to read a thread, article or essay is to become familiar with the subject matter because it sounds interesting. Don't assume your reader is an expert in decoding your special and often made up acronyms.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  I've read and understood them both but didn't recognize them from the initials. In another comment here, someone said > TAoCP (er, Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming") I also would not have recognized TAoCP as referring to the Knuth book. Not all corners of the tech world commonly refer to tech books by their initials. That doesn't mean they have nothing useful to say about them.
  - teh_klev 3y ago
    I agree. This is another acronym I struggle to recognise when I see it despite being reasonably familiar with the first three volumes since my high school and college days back in the 80's.