Does this need emphasis?

Brooks Davis brooks at one-eyed-alien.net
Fri Feb 13 17:52:33 UTC 2004


On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 03:42:09PM +0000, Tom Hukins wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 12:07:13PM +0000, Nik Clayton wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 11, 2004 at 07:31:31PM +0000, Ceri Davies wrote:
> > >             <para><emphasis>PXE</emphasis>: The &intel; Preboot Execution
> > >               Environment system is a form of smart boot ROM built into some
> > >               networking cards or motherboards.  See &man.pxeboot.8; for more
> > >               details.</para>
> > > 
> > > I think that the emphasis markup here is extraneous.  Does anybody mind
> > > if I get rid of it?
> > 
> > Nope.  <acronym> might be a better choice.
> 
> A minor point:  Technically, this is an abbreviation, not an acronym,
> as each letter in PXE is pronounced individually.  Therefore, <abbrev>
> might be a better choice.

You want pedantic, you go it.

According to my reading of the duck book, <acronym> would be more
appropriate.  It says:

	Abbrev
		An abbreviation, especially one followed by a period.
	Acronym
		An _often_ pronounceable word made from the initial (or 
		selected) letters of a name or phrase.

[emphasis mine]

By this definition, PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) is clearly an 
acronym.

-- Brooks

-- 
Any statement of the form "X is the one, true Y" is FALSE.
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