Discuss mailing list

[Richard Lyons <richard AT the-place.net>]

On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 01:29:49 +0000, Peter Green wrote:

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> > The only thing I would say is I don't like D.N.S., drop the full stops, 
> > DNS
> 
> Ha ha, this is funny. It's an acronym, acronyms have full stops in
> them, why is that so bad? It's correct.

The convention is that full stops indicate initial letters used in place
of words.  However, since the 50s at least, it has become increasingly
common to simply use capital letters to indicate an acronym, omitting
the full stops.  This can be seen as normal usage today, and it is
certainly easier on the eyes.  The important thing is to use uppercase
to distinguish acronyms from words.  (Obviously, even this rule is
routinely ignored in SMS and IM usage, though it should be observed in
more formal media.)

richard