Paul Menzel wrote:
I propose the following rule (suggestion, guideline) for usage of abbreviations in commit messages and code.
Abbreviations – mostly three letter acronyms (TLA) – should be written out in full additionally once when used the first time in a file or commit message, when no Wikipedia article exists for that abbreviation or pops up when searching for that abbreviation.
NAK..
coreboot should be attractive to hobby hackers too
I'm afraid that's just wishful thinking. Please look at the reality of modern platform development. Hobby hackers can't contribute there.
and not having to look up these terms saves them some time and eases the “dreadful learning curve” in my opinion. Especially writing them out takes programmers less than five seconds as they can type really fast.
Let's optimize for the common case.. Every hobby hacker needs to look up each acronym only once, and the cost of that lookup is small in terms of commited lines of code. Typing out acronyms in each commit message, no matter how fast one types, will always have higher cost in terms of committed lines of code.
That said, I completely agree that commit messages are an important way to transfer knowledge and that they should always be thoughtfully written, but in reality not everyone will do that.
//Peter