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Article #4285Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
From: Kevin Mulholland
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 00:00
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 1997 00:00
40 lines
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3347 bytes
Just so we can put this part of the thread to rest ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TLA /T-L-A/ /n./ [Three-Letter Acronym] 1. Self-describing abbreviation for a species with which computing terminology is infested. 2. Any confusing acronym. Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA, CPU, MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, NNTP, TLA. People who like this looser usage argue that not all TLAs have three letters, just as not all four-letter words have four letters. One also hears of `ETLA' (Extended Three-Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/) being used to describe four-letter acronyms. The term `SFLA' (Stupid Four-Letter Acronym) has also been reported. See also YABA. The self-effacing phrase "TDM TLA" (Too Damn Many...) is often used to bemoan the plethora of TLAs in use. In 1989, a random of the journalistic persuasion asked hacker Paul Boutin "What do you think will be the biggest problem in computing in the 90s?" Paul's straight-faced response: "There are only 17,000 three-letter acronyms." (To be exact, there are 26^3 = 17,576.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- as described in the Jargon File (http://www.wins.uva.nl/~mes/jargon). This is a great read in itself (having spent the better part of 3 days perusing it, oh what joy to be leaving this company and not have much to do to fill my time) So what acronyms have we see so far ? Many explainations of su, dd, cc, cpio lets face it most of us could write a short script (or program) to find all the programs on our systems that are only 3 or 4 letters long then do a man page lookup for the answers, maybe not as much fun as the extensive chat on this thread has been. kpm. kpm. -- Things have changed new address, new email, new phone, new job . . . . Friends may email for info, kevin@moodfarm.co.uk homepages http://www.moodfarm.demon.co.uk
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X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1103af,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gid1103af,public X-Google-Thread: faa64,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gidfaa64,public X-Google-Thread: 11035d,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gid11035d,public X-Google-Thread: 1025b4,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gid1025b4,public X-Google-Thread: 10eb3b,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gid10eb3b,public X-Google-Thread: f4bda,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gidf4bda,public X-Google-Thread: fa705,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gidfa705,public X-Google-Thread: 1012a6,3d362ec564ebdcba X-Google-Attributes: gid1012a6,public From: kevin@dvstsol.demon.co.uk (Kevin Mulholland) Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list? Date: 1997/06/12 Message-ID: <5noncj$2lb$1@despair.u-net.com> X-Deja-AN: 247889524 References: <337C64F0.41C6@cs.ucc.ie> <5lsbv4$id8@bmtlh10.bnr.ca> <3383FA57.4855@uab.ericsson.se> <EAMxy9.EF4@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <A01469D243A414B4.60EFD3C313DDF166.4A538EC778681837@library-proxy.airnews.net> <3396D1DD.6495@qanv.pbz> <339c2a14.7756419@news.zippo.com> <339DA050.3506@nowhere.man> <339ed8b2.96555759@news.zippo.com> Organization: U-NET Ltd Reply-To: kevin@dmicros.com Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris