I am thankful that these short forms exist, as I must use them a lot in my work where space is priceless: charts, tables, project plans, etc.
Not only does it save a lot of time (especially now where I can type only with 1.5 hands - broken thumb) but it looks more neat in overall documentation. I agree, in a text or book I would not necessarily use them if I wasn't sure who the readers are and what their level of knowledge in our area is. Definitely better than InTeRn@i*nAlIÊ’@i*n which OE automatically identifies as an email address ... Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Caplan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mark Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Tex Texin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Unicoders" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "NE Localization SIG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 4:08 PM Subject: Re: Origin of the term i18n > At 12:20 PM 10/11/2002 -0700, Mark Davis wrote: > >> Mark, I am curious why you find this term so distasteful? Is it the > >algorithm itself or just a general objection to acronyms and the like? Or > >something else entirely? > > > >I find this particular way of forming abbreviations particularly ugly and > >obscure. > > I think it is a meme that is catching on and it serves various purposes more important than "saving keystrokes": > > - these are important words that describe entire fields of study in many specialties > - many of them (internationalization, globalization, e.g) are in the common vernacular, with vague denotations and possibly negative connotations in the general public > - As such the words are seriously overloaded and confusing > - Not only that, but they are spelled differently in various parts of the English speaking world, which affects indexing. > - They are long and hard to spell for non-native speakers (and probably most US native speakers too) > - They are toungue twisters for all, especially for some non-native English speakers > - The overloading of definitions, even within scholarly fields, is calling out for a separation and branding (do a search on localization and see how many branches of science you get) > - Long words really suck for design purposes. You would be limited to about 9 point type on your business card if anything other than your title included "Internationalization" > --snip--
