abbr or acronym for currency codes?

[dnn]

Dear list

Are currency codes such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. to be put in an abbr or
acronym tag?

I am interested in your best practice on this matter.

Thx.
Nico

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Are currency codes such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. to be put in an abbr or
acronym tag?

No. See http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/abbr.html for an explanation
of the uselessness of abbr and acronym markup.

Technically, currency codes are neither acronyms nor abbreviations,
though they have originally been formed as abbreviations. But this is
irrelevant here.

If you use the codes, explain them in normal page content, preferably
_before_ use. Better still, don't use them but use names or, in some
cases, symbols like $, €, and £, if all readers can be expected to
recognize them. The currency codes are meant to be used internally in
data processing systems as well as visibly in some international banking
business contexts etc., _not_ in normal text. If you think abbr or
acronym would help, this is an example of such markup being worse than
useless, since it pushes you into doing something wrong.

 

[nice.guy.nige]

While the city slept, dnn ([email protected]) feverishly typed...

Dear list

Are currency codes such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. to be put in an abbr or
acronym tag?

Well, as they are abbreviations, I would say "yes". Remember to use the
title attribute for your first instance as in <p>This is $45<abbr
title="United States Dollars">USD</abbr> and this is $55<abbr>USD</abbr></p>

Cheers,
Nige

 

[Andy Dingley]

Are currency codes such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. to be put in an abbr or
acronym tag?

<abbr>

But don't expect it to achieve anything except maybe a hook to hang
some CSS on

If it's an intranet app and you _must_ work on IE, then use <acronym>,
because <abbr> simply doesn't.

The pair of elements are poorly thought out, so they're confused and
overlapping. They also fail to cover something more useful that's
harder to describe, the idea of "Atomic concept from some unimportant
origin that's recognisable, usable, but unpronouncable". <abbr> comes
closest though.

If you use it, use title attributes and I'd suggest
class="currency-code" or class="ISO4217" too. Personally I also tend
to repeat the code itself into the class, e.g. class="ISO4217 XAU" If
I'm using these at all I'm doing it automatically (XSLT) and it's quite
commonplace that I find myself wanting to start colour highlighting
particular currencies on a page.

 

[Jake]

Dear list

Are currency codes such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. to be put in an abbr or
acronym tag?

I am interested in your best practice on this matter.

Thx.
Nico

Strictly speaking, they're abbreviations -- so the mark-up would be
<abbr></abbr>.

However, I'd be inclined not to mark them up but make the meaning clear
the first time they're used on the page.

E.g.

".... and the cost is USD 25 (US Dollars) each when ......"

" ...... sending at least GBP 200 (British Pounds) when the ..."

Note:

(a) Don't use <acronym></acronym> as it's the wrong mark-up.
(b) Don't use <abbr></abbr> without a title as at least one
screen-reader will speak ....... nothing ;-)

regards.

 

[Alan J. Flavell]

If it's an intranet app and you _must_ work on IE, then use <acronym>,
because <abbr> simply doesn't.

Objection! Don't mark it up with the *wrong* markup just to pacify a
piece of non-conforming software. If an abbreviation *must* work on
IE, you could perfectly well wrap the correct markup (abbr, which you
provide for www-compatible software) in

<span class="abbr" title="whatever">...</span>

for IE, which will persuade IE to work as intended and without having
to tell lies.

It's a bit verbose, but at least it's accurate.

You'd better also take into consideration Jukka's objections to
marking currency codes as abbreviations, though.

The pair of elements are poorly thought out, so they're confused and
overlapping.

Indeed, and made worse by mutually contradictory definitions in the
HTML4 specifications.

If you use it, use title attributes and I'd suggest
class="currency-code" or class="ISO4217" too.

Fair comment.

Btw, I'm told that IE7 will finally support <abbr>. Not that I really
care what IE7 supports, since it's still going to be in deliberate
violation of various interworking specifications, and thereby rules
*itself* out as a web compatible browser.

 

[nice.guy.nige]

While the city slept, Jukka K. Korpela ([email protected]) feverishly
typed...

Are currency codes such as USD, EUR, GBP, etc. to be put in an abbr
or acronym tag?

[...]
Technically, currency codes are neither acronyms nor abbreviations,
though they have originally been formed as abbreviations. But this is
irrelevant here.

From the Merriam-Webster definition for "Abbreviation": "a shortened form of
a written word or phrase used in place of the whole "
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abbreviation), so how would you
class "USD" (a shorterned form of the phrase "United States Dollars") as not
an abbreviation???

If you use the codes, explain them in normal page content, preferably
_before_ use. Better still, don't use them but use names or, in some
cases, symbols like $, €, and £, if all readers can be expected to
recognize them

[...]

This will work as long as the GBP symbol doesn't appear as a #, as it so
often does in places other than here (the UK).

I do agree though that it may be preferable to simply make a note along the
lines of "All prices quoted are in UK Pounds Sterling" (or whatever) -
especially if there are going to be many prices on one page, as then the
scattering of "USD"s or "GBP"s all over the page would not look good (and
I'm sure wouldn't sound good either!)

Cheers,
Nige

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

From the Merriam-Webster definition for "Abbreviation": "a shortened form of
a written word or phrase used in place of the whole "
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abbreviation), so how would you
class "USD" (a shorterned form of the phrase "United States Dollars") as not
an abbreviation???

A code. That's how it has been defined and named. It is by definition
language-independent. It is used, in certain specific situations, in
place of the name of the currency, such as "Yhdysvaltain dollari". Its
origin is of etymological interest only.

This will work as long as the GBP symbol doesn't appear as a #, as it so
often does in places other than here (the UK).

I don't think that's common these days; the confusion between # and £
seems to be UK-specific. In any case, in HTML authoring, you can avoid
any such confusion by using the entity reference &pound;.

 

[Alan J. Flavell]

I don't think that's common these days; the confusion between # and
£ seems to be UK-specific.

The confusion between "pound" (meaning "#") and pound sterling is a
peculiarly USA-specific confusion - not recognised in the UK except by
those also familiar with USA-specific usage.

It just so happened that the UK national version of ISO-646 (BS4730,
see e.g *), had the pound sterling character in the same place that
us-ascii has its hash or number-sign character "#", which, as I say,
the USAns tend to call "pound". So that made it a kind of
double-bluff.

*) http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~yasuoka/CJK/ISO646/bs4730.gif

anyone for an octothorpe? :-}