On Friday, 10/06/2006 at 08:02 GMT, Ted MacNEIL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The "S" is not for pluralisation. > It stands for "Second". > > As in: > Millions of Instructions Per Second. > > It is 1 MIPS, 2 MIPS, red fish, blue fish. > > NOT 1 MIP.
Since it's an acronym, not a word, we get to make up whatever rules we want for pluralization. Repeat after me: The box has 200 MIPS. It is a 200-MIP box. I think I should pay IBM more for each MIP, regardless of how many MIPS the box has. "Has"? "...how many millions of instructions per second the box *has*?" OBVIOUSLY, MIPS is singluar, even it it isn't a noun. It is an adjective. The correct plural form is "MIPSes". I think Humpty Dumpty would agree. > And, MSU's are just as bad, these days. You mean MSUs (no apostrophe), of course. Or is "MSU" already plural since it is "Units"? :-) Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
