Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!sq!msb From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Acronyms. Is is `1 MIP' or `1 MIPS'? Summary: 1 MIP :-) Message-ID: <1990Jun27.014943.27951@sq.sq.com> Date: 27 Jun 90 01:49:43 GMT References: <7711@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <+I84:_@xds13.ferranti.com> Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto Lines: 20 Words change. "Laser" is an acronym (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), but the verb "lase" has been created from it by back-formation. "MIP" is closely analogous; I think the whimsy alone is a sufficient reason to keep it around. (I wouldn't say "1 MIP" in serious writing, but then, I wouldn't say "2 MIPS" there either.) The notion seemingly advanced by some posters that any rate or ratio *must* be expressed as something per something else (so that the plural marker appears in the numerator and never at the end) is quite wrong; there are several counterexamples in ordinary use: baud, knot, gee, ... If I choose to whimsically define a unit called the MIP (plural, MIPS) defined as 1 million instructions per second, where's the harm? -- Mark Brader "It's okay to have our own language if we feel utzoo!sq!msb we need it, but why does it have to be used msb@sq.com as a nose to look down?" -- Becky Slocombe This article is in the public domain.