# Re: Meta-acronyms

Peter Deutsch (peterd@bunyip.com)
Wed, 27 Oct 1993 14:05:30 -0400

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    Message-Id: <9310271805.AA02634@expresso.bunyip.com>

    From: Peter Deutsch <peterd@bunyip.com>

    Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 14:05:30 -0400

    In-Reply-To: "Chris Weider"'s message as of Oct 27, 10:30

    To: "Chris Weider" <clw@merit.edu>, uri@bunyip.com

    Subject: Re: Meta-acronyms

[ Chris wrote: ]

> Gang:
> I'd like to propose another acronym to indicate metainformation on the
> acronyms we are creating:
>
> GURGLE: Generic Uniform Reference to General Locator Expressions
>
> The GURGLE consists of repeated fields of acronyms and metainformation about
> the acronyms. The acronyms tend to stay the same, but the metainformation

Actually, this claim of immutability of acronyms conflicts
with all know experience in this field, which is that the
acronyms are themselves continuously mutable. This
observation has already resulted in the call for a new
working group to examine the coming crisis in exhaustion
of the Three Letter Acronym (TLA) namespace and has
attracted the attention of medical researchers searching
for a suitable modelling environment in which to perform
research on such fast changing viruses as that which
causes the flu, HIV, etc. The fact that these
fast-changing acronyms have not yet been shown to have any
effect on real humans is obviously an attraction, although
it is not yet clear that they are entirely safe, either.

> about them , such as functionality, syntax, semantics, etc. tends to
> change rapidly and at times even be multi-valued.

The multi-homed nature of both the acronyms and their
corresponding content is an interesting phenomenon and one
for which I think large government research grants are
appropriate. Hmmm, that gives me an idea. Sorry all,
gotta run.... ;-)

- peterd

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