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Date:      Fri, 17 Aug 2001 09:12:30 +0100
From:      Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>
To:        John Murphy <jfm@blueyonder.co.uk>
Cc:        doc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: <acronym>
Message-ID:  <20010817091230.A59279@clan.nothing-going-on.org>
In-Reply-To: <hinont8fhal36o8pusq5c3jvc9t2thmdll@4ax.com>; from jfm@blueyonder.co.uk on Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 01:16:13AM %2B0100
References:  <hinont8fhal36o8pusq5c3jvc9t2thmdll@4ax.com>

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On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 01:16:13AM +0100, John Murphy wrote:
> I am impressed.  It is a good way to write a book :)
>=20
> However: I'm stuck on the <acronym> tag.  I first saw it around IDE, then=
 found
> it not around BIOS or SCSI etc.  'twould seem to me that these, and more,=
 are
> unequivocal throughout the Manual and could, therefore, be treated as par=
t of
> the final process.  Else I could easily acronymize (sorry), the occurrenc=
es I find.
>=20
> I think i'm confused, because i tend to say I de E, buyos, skuzy.
> The latter two seem more acronymy than the first...  (I used to say Lie N=
ux!)

An acronym is anything formed from (typically the initial) letters from
a phrase.  So BIOS, SCSI, RAID, and IDE are all acronyms.  An
abbreviation is a shortened form of a word.

> Abbreviation tag anyone?

There is an <abbrev> element. . .

As to whether we use the elements or not -- there's no "formal" policy on=
=20
this.  My personal opinion is that we have, through general usage, evolved=
=20
a core set of elements that we use in the documentation -- things like=20
<filename>, <replaceable>, <username>, the &man.foo.x; entities, and so on.=
 =20
If a document is submitted that doesn't use these elements where appropriat=
e=20
then I'd try to add it to the mark up before committing it.

Then there are "non-core" elements.  <acronym> and <abbrev> fall in to
this category.  They are nice to have, but it's not a showstopper if
they're not used when they should be.  But they do add to the value in
the text (because then we can produce tables of acronyms, allowing
readers to see where acronyms like "IDE" are used in the text), so if
you, or anyone else, wants to tighten up the mark up in text that you're
looking at then you should feel free to do so.

N
--=20
FreeBSD: The Power to Serve             http://www.freebsd.org/
FreeBSD Documentation Project           http://www.freebsd.org/docproj/

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