19 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
19 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>TLA</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../T.html" title="T"/><link rel="previous" href="tits-on-a-keyboard.html" title="tits on a keyboard"/><link rel="next" href="TMRC.html" title="TMRC"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">TLA</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tits-on-a-keyboard.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">T</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="TMRC.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="TLA"/><dt xmlns="" id="TLA"><b>TLA</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/T·L·A/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [Three-Letter Acronym]</p></dd><dd><p> 1. Self-describing abbreviation for a species with which computing
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terminology is infested. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. Any confusing acronym. Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA, CPU, MMU,
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SCCS, DMU, FPU, NNTP, TLA. People who like this looser usage argue that
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not all TLAs have three letters, just as not all four-letter words have
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four letters. One also hears of ‘ETLA’ (Extended Three-Letter
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Acronym, pronounced <span class="pronunciation">/ee tee el
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ay/</span>) being used to describe four-letter acronyms; the terms
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‘SFLA’ (Stupid Four-Letter Acronym), ‘LFLA’ (Longer
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Four Letter Acronym), and VLFLA (Very Long Five Letter Acronym) have also
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been reported. See also <a href="../Y/YABA.html"><i class="glossterm">YABA</i></a>.</p></dd><dd><p>The self-effacing phrase “<span class="quote">TDM TLA</span>” (Too Damn
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Many...) is often used to bemoan the plethora of TLAs in use. In
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1989, a random of the journalistic persuasion asked hacker Paul Boutin
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“<span class="quote">What do you think will be the biggest problem in computing in the
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90s?</span>” Paul's straight-faced response: “<span class="quote">There are only 17,000
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three-letter acronyms.</span>” (To be exact, there are <tt class="literal">26^3
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= 17,576</tt>.) There is probably some karmic justice in the
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fact that Paul Boutin subsequently became a journalist.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tits-on-a-keyboard.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../T.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="TMRC.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">tits on a keyboard </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> TMRC</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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