Nitpick: Portable Document Format Format

[johnsemlak]

From the news page:

"Goodman Games has released Dungeon Crawl Classics #13: Crypt of the Devil Lich in PDF format. This 96-page adventure priced at $14.99 is designed for 15th level characters."

Why doesn't anyone ever think about what the letters in an acronym MEAN? It's so annoying to see stupid redundancies added to something designed as a shortcut.

Ahem. I posted the article in question

I did think about that exact issue, actually. But as many others have pointed out, the 'F' in PDF is pretty much lost its individual meaning. Like ATM machine.

However, in the future I could replace the phrase with 'in PD format'. Anyone think that's a good idea?

 

[johnsemlak]

I didn't notice the instance on today's News Page (was too busy trying to remember if previous Dungeon Crawl Classics were print-only and if this was a shift in publication method),
.

No chance in publication method. All of the Dungeon Crawl classics have been simultaneously released in print and PDF (format ). However, since most people prefer print, they obviously get a lot more press.

 

[Elephant]

Actually, the ELSC has already established a standard for the next version of English and it is not backwards compatible.

(incidentally, that's a shameless plug to an article I wrote. Fair warning.)

Is that anything like the latest edition of the Newspeak Dictionary?

Hmm...while I'm ranting, most of the other stuff mentioned in this thread bugs me a lot, too, along with drivel like sorceror, u r, and rouge (in RPG discussions).

 

[Elephant]

Ahem. I posted the article in question

I did think about that exact issue, actually. But as many others have pointed out, the 'F' in PDF is pretty much lost its individual meaning. Like ATM machine.

However, in the future I could replace the phrase with 'in PD format'. Anyone think that's a good idea?

I think an alternate phrase would work better. "...released as a PDF." would avoid the stupidity.

 

[johnsemlak]

I think an alternate phrase would work better. "...released as a PDF." would avoid the stupidity.

Perhaps I'm taking it personally, but calling it 'stupidity' seems a bit strong, especially since I don't believe grammatically there's anything wrong with it (the US Census seems to think it's OK). The English langauge is full of a lot of quirks and irregularities that many people don't like but they are not 'incorrect'. Also, when an acronym enters the language as a normal word, it does not necessarily retain the same properties as the original words do.

However, thanks for the suggestion. Might do it that way in the future.

p.s. is 'a PDF' any more correct than 'PDF format'?

 

[Asmor]

Perhaps I'm taking it personally, but calling it 'stupidity' seems a bit strong, especially since I don't believe grammatically there's anything wrong with it (the US Census seems to think it's OK). The English langauge is full of a lot of quirks and irregularities that many people don't like but they are not 'incorrect'.

However, thanks for the suggestion. Might do it that way in the future.

p.s. is 'a PDF' any more correct than 'PDF format'?

Yes.

 

[Staffan]

I don't know if it's as prevalent in English as it is in Swedish, but over here I often hear people talk about "CD-skivor" - "CD discs" in English.

 

[Hand of Evil]

RTF Format and DOC Document get a lot of use too and have to say it may because of the computer age file extentions.

 

[Thanee]

p.s. is 'a PDF' any more correct than 'PDF format'?

Actually, I think "a PDF" is technical nonsense.

"This document is released as a Portable Document Format." (This sentence is without any sense.)

PDF is by itself not a noun, it's an abbreviation for a data format.
Sure, it's often used in colloquial speech like that, but that doesn't make it right.

I think "in PDF format" is actually technically more correct, because that is exactly what PDF is... a document format. The term "PDF" is replaceable by any other such term, like "DOC" or "TXT" or "PS". Why should "PDF" be special?

Of course, you could avoid this, by just not using the abbreviation as part of the sentence:

"This document is released in Portable Document Format (PDF)."

Bye
Thanee

 

[ayrwind]

Thankyou you for passing me the VCD disc.