SQL, gif, e-mail... (was Re: [thechat] who thought *this* was a good idea?)

[.jeff]

miriam,

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> From: Miriam Frost
>
> > just for a second, think about what you're
> > pronouncing.  it's an acronym.  that usually (except
> > only in *very* rare cases) means you pronounce each
> > letter individually, rather than the string as a word
> > made up by the sounds that combined letters might
> > make.
>
> So do you personally say, "gee eye eff" or "jay pee eee gee"?
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nope, file extensions seem to fall under the rare exceptions i noted above.
in thinking about why i pronounce certain acronyms as if they're a word
versus pronouncing each individual letter that makes up others, i think i've
figured out my reasoning (and seemingly the reasoning of many others) when
it comes to file extensions.  for me, if the file extension has usefully
placed vowels, then pronounce as a word:

.gif == "gif"
.jpeg == "jay peg"
.zip == "zip"
.doc == "doc"

however, if the file extension is missing those crucial vowels, pronounce
each letter individually:

.rtf == "are tee eff"
.html == "aich tee emm ell"
.pdf == "pee dee eff"
.cfm == "see eff emm"

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> OK! Now I see your logic here, you twisty one! You're
> trying to point out that since they're not real words
> anyway it doesn't matter and this is a silly discussion
> to get really worked up about, but being sly.
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yup -- everything but the part about being worked up (i'm not at least).

laterz,

.jeff

http://evolt.org/
jeff at members.evolt.org
http://members.evolt.org/jeff/