Rob,

I agree in general to all you said and find your arguments well made.

As a rule, however, there are exceptions, these exceptions are for acronyms that have industry acceptance. DMA, CPU, RAM, ROM are examples of well accepted abreviations. The acceptability of these abbreviations is because they are acronyms as well as abbreviation.

There is a long history of abbreviation in English which can be noted in 18th and 19th century correspondence and literature. Latin is also often abbreviated (not always as an acronym).

Notably, acronyms rarely are accompanied by (intentionally) dropped conjunctions and articles as the intention was to promote easier reading by shortening sentences.

SMS-lish can, unfortunately, abreviate ideas, as well as language, often performing more as a code, than as a short descriptive form.

Regarding this, there has been a tacit acceptance of symbolic codes upon this board ;), i don't generally use this symbology but i do find it expressive and consequently an aid to concept promotion.

"Bottom line", (get ready) IMHO languages evolve. In response to this, many fora promote guidelines to standardize the expression of ideas without the burden of mis-translation. This said, i vote against SMS as the new language of this forum but would suggest not flogging those who use it too badly.

Finally, ever notice that your spelling mistakes are only noticable once you "click" POST?

regards,
p