RE: Style Manuals?

[Marguerite Krupp <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com>]

The specific example that Anne cites is very tricky. According to Newton's
Telecom Dictionary:

"Mbps - When you see Mbps as the speed of a telecommunications, networking,
or local area networking transmission facility, (i.e., something that moves
information), Mbps means million bits per second -- exactly one million. No
more. No less. When you see Mbps or MBps referred to in the context of
computing, it means million bytes per second, which is the same as one
million bytes per second. How many bits that is depends on how many bits
there are in a byte. Typically, it's eight (but it could be more or fewer).
So, in this case, one Mbps would be eight million bits per second. 

To be correct, Mbps is million bits per second, and MBps is million bytes
per second." 

So you need to look at the context. Rather than write an entire style guide,
why not pick one (Microsoft, Sun, Apple, or some other) and just note the
exceptions that are specific to your company? I think that vocabulary is one
of the areas in which you'll find the most exceptions.

HTH,
Marguerite

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