Hi, I have noticed that a lot of people who refer to CellML (generally people who don't use CellML, but reference it) feel obliged to expand the abbreviation, and they generally expand it as "Cell Markup Language".
As far as I am aware, we have never actually said that CellML stands for Cell Markup Language, and indeed, that expansion doesn't really make sense, because CellML does not aim to mark up cells at all, and it is in some sense independent of biology at a technical level. However, unless we can agree as a community that CellML doesn't stand for "Cell Markup Language", there is a risk that people will keep calling it that, which could result in a misunderstanding of what CellML is. I suggest that we put the following note up as an errata to the CellML specifications (please indicate whether you agree with the intention of this, and whether you agree with the specific wording): "CellML is not intended to be an abbreviation, but rather, it is simply a name used to identify the language. The fact that CellML starts with the word 'Cell' is a result of its original intended use. However, CellML is actually a generic mathematical modelling language which can be applied in a range of disciplines. It is worth noting that CellML does not stand for 'Cell Markup Language'. Instead, when introducing CellML to an audience who may be unfamiliar with it, a short explanation of CellML is recommended. For example, 'CellML (a mathematical model markup language most commonly used to describe biological systems using ordinary differential equations)' ". Best regards, Andrew _______________________________________________ cellml-discussion mailing list [email protected] http://www.cellml.org/mailman/listinfo/cellml-discussion
