Re: Abbreviations and expansion

On Sun, 31 Dec 2000, Nick Kew wrote:


  On Sun, 31 Dec 2000, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
  > One possible approach is to define a dictionary, somewhere on the Web. Then
  > you provide a reference to it as part of the metadata for a page. Then a
  > dictionary lookup system can go dereference things that are not real words
  > (or things that are - why not...).

[snip]  NK
  Now, regarding your suggestion, I don't see how a standard dictionary
  somewhere on the web is any better than a standard dictionary on my
  server.  However, a more interesting idea is a Dictionary Protocol,
  designed to allow dictionary servers to exchange information on-demand.
  However, I suspect this isn't really the right forum to discuss a
  dictionary protocol.

CMN
I understand the issue of whether something should be on the web or on the
server as a bandwidth one. I agree that there is a lot of protocol stuff in
it, and I think the answer has a lot to do with caching dictionaries, which
can be built into clients if people want...

CMN (how do you know to look up something?)
  > I think the answer to this one is that markup is a lot better. (You could
  > rely on people using upper case letters, but it doesn't always work. And is
  > not even correct, as I understand it, in Italian.)

NK
  E alcuni anni fa quando sono stato in Italia, ma credo che Lei e sbagliato!
CMN
(my translation - it is some years since I was in Italy, but I think you are
mistaken)

I am not sure if it is correct Italian or not, but it is certainly a very
practice (see comments about using AP style in english) to write
abbreviations as we write "proper nouns" in english - first letter only is
capitalised. E.g. Dna instead of DNA. And it is some hours since I was
reading Italian newspapers.

(Credo che deve dire Lui... e anche tutt'il mondo puo dire tu sei a me)

Received on Tuesday, 2 January 2001 11:12:53 UTC