Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!karam
From: karam@sce.carleton.ca (Gerald Karam)
Subject: Re: Capitalization & programming language names
Message-ID: <1991Jan22.170451.24994@ccs.carleton.ca>
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References: <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> <14834@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <1991Jan11.203246.12599@nixtdc.uucp> <2904@cirrusl.UUCP>
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Date: Tue, 22 Jan 1991 17:04:51 GMT

In article <2904@cirrusl.UUCP> dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
>In <1991Jan11.203246.12599@nixtdc.uucp> doug@nixtdc.uucp (Doug Moen) writes:
>
>>The names of languages (eg, English, Fortran, Basic) are proper names,
>>and thus should be given an initial capital.  If the name is an acronym
>>that is pronounced by sounding out each letter, then you should use all caps
>>(eg, IBM, APL, JCL).
>
>This is an excellent rule-of-thumb that I usually use.  If it's treated
>as a word and somewhat phonetically pronounced, then capitalize only
>the first letter at most.  If individual letters are pronounced
>separately (i.e., the pronounciation unit is a letter and not a word),
>capitalize all letters.

if you follow publishing convention, then acronyms (IBM, DEC) are fully
capitalized, otherwise, only capitalize the first later - it really has nothing
to do with how it is pronounced.

- gerald
-- 
Gerald Karam           |"Don't have a cow, man!" - Bart Simpson
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