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Subject:why bytes are Bs and not bs From:Miss Julie A Landry <jalandry -at- DIGITAL -dot- NET> Date:Sat, 7 Jun 1997 03:26:24 -0400
>I'm looking for consensus on the abbreviation of things like megabyte
>and gigabyte, which are typically represented as mb and gb (or, to my
>dismay, MB, Mb GB, and Gb). To me, these are abbreviations, *not*
>acronyms, and should not be capped.
If they are true abbreviations, why don't you end them with periods?
Okay, okay, I get the gist of the question. If a centimeter is cm, why
isn't megabyte always mb? I dunno, but most places I've worked preferred
MB. (It was listed that way in the IBM dictionary of computer terms, too.)
If the logic escapes you, think of it as an idiom; a bootlegger doesn't
make legs for boots. Or, you can think of it this way: the convention was
established by engineers long before the writers came into the picture. The
uppercase vs. lowercase thing didn't interest them. They did it that way,
and now we're stuck with it. If your employer has no preference, I'm sure
you won't be arrested for using the lower case version. Unfortunately,
however, I doubt that it will spark a revolution in spelling and
punctuation reform.
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| You can lead a gift horse to water, but you can't look |
| in his mouth. -- Archie Bunker |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Julie Landry / Orlando, Florida / jalandry -at- digital -dot- net |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
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