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From: kevin@dvstsol.demon.co.uk (Kevin Mulholland)
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
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: 12 Jun 1997 11:43:15 GMT
Organization: U-NET Ltd
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Just so we can put this part of the thread to rest
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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.)
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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