Nikolai Weibull wrote:
On 6/5/06, Andreas Ericsson <ae@xxxxxx> wrote:
Nikolai Weibull wrote:
> On 6/4/06, Junio C Hamano <junkio@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Most do not seem to be typoes, depending on where you learned
>> the language (XYZour vs XYZor; ok, Ok, and OK; ie vs i.e.).
>
> Where do you write "ie" instead of "i.e."?
>
Mailing lists, online conversations, tech docs written in code
editors...
Do you mean that code editors usually don't let you enter a dot into
the buffer, or what?
No, I mean that people are lazy when writing online and for an audience
that broadly share the same sort of text-digesting mind, so they don't
bother with the dots.
Compare with online'ish abbrevs (afaict, iirc, imo, fyi).
That's hardly the same thing.
Why not? Both are examples of one-letter-per-word abbreviations.
Most people would upcase AFAICT, IIRC,
IMO, and FYI.
True, but both forms are common enough. I guess I'm one of the lazier
ones, since I regularly use lower-case.
I wouldn't group "i.e." with such abbreviations in any case. (Hehe.)
I fail to see why not. I also fail to care very much, so feel free not
to respond. ;)
When each character of the abbrev defines one complete word dots are
just prettiness-noise, their presence or absence decided by the gravity
of the meaning ("R.I.P." vs "ie"). Obviously, correctness never hurts
but this is, on two accounts, punktknulleri.
Considering that people don't want to get stuck on trying to
understand what the word "ie" is supposed to mean in a manual page
they're trying to understand what some command does (this happened to
me), I really think that fucking with the dots is called for.
Anyway, the general guidelines recommended by "The Chicago Manual of
Style" are:
Use periods with abbreviations that appear in lowercase letters; use
no periods with abbreviations that appear in full capitals or small
capitals, whether two letters or more.
One possible solution is to expand "i.e." to "that is" (or something
equally befitting) and "e.g." to "for example", "such as", or similar.
This is most likely the best solution as it's easier for foreign readers
with limited proficiency in reading english and english abbreviations
borrowed from latin, as they don't make sense if you try to put in
english words matching the abbreviation, dots or no dots. This gave me
quite a headache when I was twelve and tried to install Linux for the
first time :)
--
Andreas Ericsson andreas.ericsson@xxxxxx
OP5 AB www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225 Fax: +46 8-230231
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