RE: style query: casing of abbreviations

["Fred Ridder" <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

For one thing, what you seem to be talking about are acronyms and
initialisms rather than abbreviations. I'd agree with you if you were
talking about conventional abbreviations...

For another thing, all-caps is only interpreted as SHOUTING in the
context of the Internet and e-mail. Documentation follows long-
established rules for style and presentation that generally call for
capitalization of acronyms and initialisms (at least until they enter
common usage, such as radar, scuba, and laser). And even on the
'net, many conversational abbreviations get capped just to make
it clear that they are not regular words and help the reader make
the proper cognitive connection. Even people who tend to type
their own thoughts in all lower-case will commonly capitalize things
like LOL and IMO and AFAIK just to make them more readable.

My opinions only; I don't speak for Intel.
Fred Ridder
Intel
Parsippany, NJ