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Andrej Rypo
Andrej Rypo

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i18n, l10n, g11n, a11y, W1F

Seriously? How does this make anything more legible? Are we trading keyboard hits for legibility? I would understand i18n, as internationalization really is a difficult word to type. But how often do we type this, honestly? And the rest? Saving 8-9 key hits? W1F1 is wrong with just typing the word?

Instead, why don't we settle on actual words that are inclusive and easy(-ier) to type?

I just wish that one day we are able to use

  • unity
  • harmony
  • world
  • inclusion
  • everyone

... or something like that.

It seems to me like a race to find a new [a-z][1-9][0-9]?[a-z] match. Or is the higher the number the better?

I5e2 I wrote the w3e3 p2t4 like this. Who would r2d5 it?


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Top comments (2)

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davidedelpapa profile image
Davide Del Papa

You forgot microsoft's own L12y!
The point is that once the trend started, everyone got in with its own. it's programmer's fashion. Like acronyms that start with the whole word, such as GNU=GNU not UNIX, WINE=WINE is not emulator, etc...

Fashions aside, the point is that each is doing internationalization in a different way, so they needed different way of calling it.

The actual thing of taking first and last letter, and putting the word length I think is best, because it resembles the codes used as placeholders in internationalization

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dakujem profile image
Andrej Rypo • Edited

Rofl imho lol... Jk.

Fashion, i agree.
The paradox stays though: all of these
"a-z0-9a-z whatever" mark technology that is meant to make software accessible/understandable to more people.
The name goes exactly the opposite way. While i need to search for what L12y means, localizability is something i understand instantly.