Jonathan HoggDo you know what's not accessible? Writing "a11y" in any article or documentation
I will accept it as a convenience in APIs since developers are lazy and can't spell, but fuck off with using it in text
James@jonathanhogg I wonder what the origin story is?
It feels like something someone wrote in a conference talk to crack a gag about making something over-trendy and unintentionally inaccessible.
And people used it as a joke to each other so much that the funny wore off and it accidentally got adopted.
It feels like something someone wrote in a conference talk to crack a gag about making something over-trendy and unintentionally inaccessible.
And people used it as a joke to each other so much that the funny wore off and it accidentally got adopted.
lpbkdotnet@jtruk @jonathanhogg the general form (a11y, i18n, k8s) has been around a while now.
I think i18n came first, probably because it was easier than repeatedly having the "internationalisation vs internationalization" spelling debate...
But I have seen it said that "k8s" was first because no one could remember how to spell (or pronounce) kubernetes?
Either way, I absolutely hate that this has just become how the tech industry abbreviates things.
It feels like it's on the "smug" side of clever
@lpbkdotnet @jtruk Wikipedia believes that i18n was coined in the 70s and is DEC's fault. Since humans read word-at-a-time by shape, I consider them all to be instances of "I am too lazy to type and therefore you will have to work harder to read"
Gerardo Lisboa@jonathanhogg @lpbkdotnet @jtruk But it helps sometimes: try to go a interoperability meeting and you'll see why saying "i14y" is much more pratical.
Whatever the case, in my texts I always put an abbreviation with the expanded term right in the beginning. If it's seldom used, I only write the expanded form.
Andrew@gvlx @jonathanhogg @lpbkdotnet @jtruk I mean sure, "interoperability" is a long word, but isn't "interop" the normal and obviously better abbreviation? Seven letters, easier to say out loud, and perfectly understandable even to lay people?
@andrewt @jonathanhogg @lpbkdotnet @jtruk No. That means something else. And in this context is meaningless.
@gvlx @jonathanhogg @lpbkdotnet @jtruk ok but doesn't that mean that in this context it's free to be used as an abbreviation for "interoperability"? loads of words mean different things in different contexts, it's almost never a problem
@jonathanhogg @andrewt But that's normal. Every group will develop their own language and conduct, opaque to outsiders.
Just like a group of friends will develop their own stories and contexts.
It's only a bad thing when the discussion is meant to welcome outsiders.
@gvlx @jonathanhogg Most industries develop jargon when they need a word for some highly specific thing that nobody else would ever need or want to refer to. That's not really the same thing as saying "i14y" when you already have "interoperability" and "interop". If your language is that wilfully incomprehensible to outsiders, how do you expect to make new insiders?
@andrewt @jonathanhogg Or just to speed conversation.
@gvlx @jonathanhogg if you want to speed up conversation you should say "interop" because it's one less syllable, and that's setting aside the massive time-save of not having to repeatedly explain what "eye fourteen why" means