For some time now, when I code these pages, I've been using the <acronym> tag to surround acronyms like NATO. If you point your mouse over the word NATO, you should see a text box with the words "North Atlantic Treaty Organization." This is helpful to people who are not familiar with a particular acronym. But I've also been using this tag to surround abbreviations. Now, as you English majors out there know, acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g. laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). On the other hand, an abbreviation also uses the first letters of other words but they, in English anyway, do not spell a word.
For example, VBR is the abbreviation of the words Variable Bit Rate. But if I use the tag for <abbr>, like this VBR, not all browsers will create (ahem, cough, Internet Explorer, cough) the text box. While modern browsers like Firefox and Opera do just fine, others do not. So, I am conflicted about what to do. If I use the correct tag, many of you (i.e., those using Microsoft's Internet Explorer) won't see the text box. But if I use the acronym tag, I am technically using the wrong markup. If this matters to any of you, one way or the other, feel free to email me using the link to the right. For now, I'll continue to use the acronym tag even if it is incorrect. Hopefully, most people will soon switch to a modern browser and at that point I can start using the correct tags.
By the way, enjoy the posting now as I will be very busy next week attending all day meetings. I think I will have enough time to put up some short posts, but that is as much as I will be able to do.
Aloha!
