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Re: WXS acronym?

• To: Francis Norton <francis@r...>
• Subject: Re: WXS acronym?
• From: ht@c... (Henry S. Thompson)
• Date: 16 Aug 2002 18:36:08 +0100
• Cc: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>, xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <3D5D282D.2080401@r...>
• References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020816120632.033c6d88@m...><f5br8gylqw5.fsf@c...> <3D5D282D.2080401@r...>
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Francis Norton <francis@r...> writes:

> Henry S. Thompson wrote:
> 
> >Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...> writes
> >
> >>Is there a reason for not calling this language W3C XML Schema
> >>    or XSDL, the official . . . acronym for the language . . .?
> 
> >>
> 
> >
> >Um, I believe a _long_ time ago the W3C XML Schema WG decided it would
> > prefer no acronym,
> 
> Shades of King Canute's courtiers here, surely?
> 
> >and has accordingly never, to my knowledge, blessed
> >_any_ acronym, including XSDL.  That (i.e. no acronym) still gets my
> >vote.
> >
> In other words, if people wish to use acronyms - and they do - then
> they may as well use one chosen by those who wish to minimise the
> roles of this language. Um indeed.

Actually, I think it's possible, and in cases of semantically dense
terminological spaces such as XML schema languages, preferrable, to
avoid acronyms altogether.  I don't find it difficult at all to always
just type "W3C XML Schema", and I have done so, and will continue to
do so, not only for accuracy, but also as a courtesy to the newcomers
and casual readers of this list.  I also note that we're doing fine
without acronyms for Web Services, Semantic Web, XLink, XML Base, XML
Signature, XPath, XML Infoset, to rattle off the first few I thought
of.

I just think the acronym space is too heavily populated for it to be
much use outside of very focussed groups to use lots of acronyms.

I realise I'm in the minority, I just thought I'd clarify why I prefer 
not to encourage the use of _any_ acronym for referring to the W3C XML
Schema design/language/effort.

ht
-- 
  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
          W3C Fellow 1999--2002, part-time member of W3C Team
     2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
	    Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@c...
		     URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
 [mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: WXS acronym?
    • From: Jim Ancona <scarhill@y...>
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    • From: Francis Norton <francis@r...>

• References:
  • WXS acronym?
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>
  • Re: WXS acronym?
    • From: ht@c... (Henry S. Thompson)
  • Re: WXS acronym?
    • From: Francis Norton <francis@r...>

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