[FRIAM] Acronyms

[Steve Smith]

> SAS GI NST
>
@NLP - TS;DP (too short; didn't parse) - @SAS

...

BTW, for computer language wonks,  I've been revisiting APL (A
Programming Language) recently.   I fell in love with it (for about 2
years) at the end of my BS Math/Physics for myriad reasons, including
it's parsimonious yet apt expressions of arrays and linear algebra.   I
was working almost exclusively in physics simulations and perspective
geometry loaded with vectors and arrays as well as the need for
efficient text parsing/generation.  APL's features were pretty concise
for both. 

APL was famous for one-liners long before PERL (more appropriately Perl
as PERL is apparently a backronym
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym>?) was invented?

for example:

(2=0+.=T∅.|T)/T←ι
   vs
perl -wle '(1 x $_) !~ /^(11+)\1+$/ && print while ++ $_'

generates primes from 1 to N

@NST @GEPR both are rigorous but not clear (to anyone not facile in the
idiom of the language)

I didn't work with *anyone* else on my APL, even my profs didn't "speak"
APL and I *never* expected anyone except the APL interpreter to
understand the APL I wrote.   The writeup I did on my senior project
included only the barest of APL code, and always formatted to be
readable, not succinct (or cryptic)... 

@SAS out


>  
>
> Nick Thompson
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com>
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
> <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/>
>
>  
>
> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Steve Smith
> *Sent:* Monday, January 25, 2021 5:44 PM
> *To:* friam at redfish.com
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Acronyms
>
>  
>
> Nick -
>
> I think it *can* be the thing you call out, but I encounter it in so
> many contexts where that explanation doesn't really fit.   Sometimes I
> think it is entirely unconscious shortcutting.   On this list, for
> example, I use LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) because I believe
> that *all* Santa Fe/NM folks know what it is an acronym for and *many*
> non SFe (Santa Fe) NM (New Mexico) folks know it *by now*.   Similarly
> I find SFI an acceptable contraction in this context.
>
> On the technical side, the shortcut/contraction/acronym is often the
> primary/preferred reference.   Even if you might not *know* that DNA
> is /deoxyribonucleic acid/ or ATP is /adenosine triphosphate/... or
> that the YMCA is the /young men's christian association/, for example,
> you know the signified by that signifier, and in fact you *won't* know
> what those contractions are *for* unless you are in fact using them in
> some insider/technical sense.
>
> I know people who work within a large  but somewhat insular community
> whose acronyms are myriad and they are truly NOT trying to be
> exclusionary.   I have a number of friends who are either social
> workers or have studied in the field or have friends/families with
> mental illness so I hear the acronym DSM and I can tell it is being
> used in a very "insider" way.   I know little of the details, but I've
> gathered that "DSM II" somehow connotes both "modern" and
> "not-really-modern" psychiatric models, but I think even if I do the
> GoogleFu to learn the first level of details, I would not be much less
> puzzled by knowing, for example:
>
>
>           DSM-I and DSM-II
>
>     In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published the
>     DSM-I, an adaptation of a classification system developed by the
>     armed forces during WW2. It was designed for use by doctors and
>     other treatment providers.
>
>     The DSM-I was the first of its kind, but experts agreed that it
>     still needed work. The DSM-II, released in 1968, attempted to
>     incorporate the psychiatric knowledge of the day. It was heavily
>     influenced by psychoanalytic concepts that were prominent at that
>     time.
>
> I think that both Glen and maybe Frank have tossed DSM or even DSM II
> into the conversation here without any more explication than I get at
> cocktail parties and it lands just as dead for me, but not offensive
> here as there (until I get my GoogleGoggles flashing
> Wikipedia/Wiktionary in my peripheral vision with automatic
> explication).  It even seems like a good feature for
> Alexa/Siri/HeyGoogle to listen continuously and recognize acronyms and
> offer ordered-by-likelihood-from-context explications in your ear (or
> in the room if you want to shame the acronymster acrimoniously).
>
> I understand that many are "lazy typists" who find it patently painful
> (emotionally if not physically) to type anything out.   And *too many
> people* (IMO ... in my opinion) do too much of their correspondence on
> a TS (tiny screen) which requires them to hunt-peck with one finger
> (maybe two thumbs) without touch feedback and without the benefit of
> QWERTY knowledge built into their Neural Net neurons.
>
> I'm assuming Frank's OP (original post) was in response to both some
> specific TLA (three letter acronym) used recently or the accrued
> irritation of having to look up jargon ( especially TLAs and MLAs
> (multi letter acronyms)) just to figure out a conversation he is
> *otherwise* informed enough on to follow.   Or both.  Or maybe he's
> just taking out his frustration with his daughter here where it's
> "safe" <grin>.
>
> BTW (by the way) and FWIW (for what it's worth) I think I'd be game
> for one of Glen's experiments, even if the constraints offered somehow
> cramped *my* style (e.g. 20 line limit on posts, no markup-like
> formatting like *bold* or EMPHASIS or _underscore_ HTML (even
> formatting like *bold* or /italics/).   or even his extremal
> suggestion of requiring "peer review" by 3 others before submitting
> (I'd probably become rather mute over that one) WTFOMFGROFLMAOGMWAS!
>
> - Steve
>
>
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