Have to say AUA would be a good looking abbreviation…
My experience and usage has been it means Classic Mac Pro.
I’ve used Apple computers since the company was called Apple Computer, my first being a II+ and my latest a MacMini & MacBook Pro, with many, many other models of virtually every iteration in between.
I had never come across that cMP semi-capitalism in what amounts to about 50 years. - Astonishing, eh? What’s more, so many are arguing about it, which tends to support the contention for avoidance or at least clarification in full before subsequent use.
The difference of opinion about what that cMP means is surely evidence of the problem with such usage, isn’t it?
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Someone once joked that the final part of a communications engineering degree was to invent 3 new acronyms. I remember at one stage there was CDMA code division multiple access which is used for mobile phones. There was already a CDMA collision detection multiple access, which is what Ethernet uses, so it became CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection.
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That is a new one on me as well…and I’ve been using Apple products since 76 and Macs since about 80.
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Glad to know I’m not alone, Neil.
I tend to think that many of these short forms are not in general use but simply an invention of an individual which is then copied by others in a small group or people following and contributing to discussions on the same topic. It’s reasonably understandable, I think, (despite that I don’t particularly like it), in an age of text, short attention spans, and the general tendency to shorten almost everything.
So, I doubt it will stop and perhaps, we’ll all even end up speaking ‘text’ type language as is common on the mobile phone.
I find it ironic, in a way, because in my youth, telegrams were the only relatively affordable - though still expensive - way for most of us, even many professionals, to send information quickly to overseas destinations. As I’m sure you are aware, they were charged by the word (or letter? I forget) so one had to go to some trouble to keep the wordage brief. - Many memories!
The usage of cMP for Classic Mac Pro dates back to around 2013 (after the release of the 2013 MacPro) on many sites including MacRumors, Reddit, Apple Discussions, and more.
As an owner of a MacPro5,1 I have visited these sites often and am familiar with the abbreviation. However, I can understand others not recognizing its meaning.
So, yes, I support minimizing the use of abbreviations.
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I’m impressed you bought/used an Apple I…!!
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Not really, the point and the recognition related to those working or familiar with special areas has been mentioned. - However, even here there is potential for problems because an acronym or abbreviation common to that speciality may also have a more generic or different meaning that is relevant in the particular piece of writing and therefore cause confusion anyway.
From the Associated Press Style Guide (hard to tell if they even use it anymore though).
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Question: are there abbreviations you feel are OK to use in discussions here? Or is it better to write, say, “General Motors” or “European Union” than “GM” or “EU”?
In general, what’s an acceptable abbreviation depends on who you’re writing for and who reads it. As a reporter my general practice is to spell everything out the first time, perhaps followed with the abbreviation (to warn the reader you are going to use the abbreviation later), and then use the abbreviation. If you write for a specialized publication, you can get away with abbreviations you can be sure your audience will know, such as GM for an auto magazine or PDF here in TidBITS. However I prefer to be cautious because I read widely, and often bump into abbreviations that I can’t instantly translate to English.
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May I second the notice to avoid acronyms and abbreviations? If something is too tedious to write set.up keyboard or TypeIt4Me or something to type the abbreviation and replace it with the full version. We all have our areas of expertise and domains of familiarity. It is at the very least inconsiderate to lard your note with opaque (to some) abbreviations. See for example the recent discussion of black-outs on MacTV. I-effing-comprehensible, some of the comments. Be nice!
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Yes, just to emphasize this, please spell out words unless the abbreviation is as well known as the expansion. GM and EU are fine, but something like MBN (for MacBook Neo) is not.
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I wrote papers that appeared in the American Meteorological Society (AMS) journals. In the AMS guide for authors they include a list of acronyms that do not require expansion. The list is…um…huge. Even as a specialist in these fields, I don’t recognize most of them, so…
I agree.
I’d also suggest that whenever you use a term that is not universally understood, even if its not an acronym, you provide a link to a definition or description. It usually doesn’t take a long time to find a definition for a term.
But is that really required in this digital age? I can control-click on any terms I don’t recognize and do an instant lookup to see the definition.
Granted, it can be ambiguous if there is more than one version of that acronym or term, and Apple’s dictionary doesn’t have a lot of internet slang, but it can always search the web for you.
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You provided a perfect reason for first showing the origin of the acronym. When I see AMS, I think of the American Mathematical Society.
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Yes, but as you point out, there can be multiple definitions, and the intended one may not be the top hit from a search engine. Far easier to just provide a link in your text, which anybody who cares can quickly click on.
Especially when we’re talking about more than just an acronym expansion. For instance, in the context of a discussion about satellite TV, I’d want more than a simple definition for a tap.
It all depends on context. As the writer, you should be able to estimate what your audience can easily figure out and what they shouldn’t have to. And it’s usually best to err on the side of “they shouldn’t have to”.
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Back in my graduate school days, I insisted on writing the full term followed by an abbreviation in parentheses on first use for everything except for universal reagents in the materials and methods section.
It drove my thesis advisor nuts. Eventually I wore him down with the argument that if we were working on important things, we should do all we could to make the text approachable for individuals outside of our immediate field.
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