Abbreviations

[gsurrel]

PHP Markdown Extra provides the possibility to create abbreviations, which might be really useful. I don't know what would be the best solution for LaTeX output (footnote?), but it would definitly make sense for HTML output.

Following, the PHP Markdown Extra doc:

Abbreviations

PHP Markdown Extra adds supports for abbreviations (HTML tag ). How it works is pretty simple: create an abbreviation definition like this:

*[HTML]: Hyper Text Markup Language
*[W3C]:  World Wide Web Consortium

then, elsewhere in the document, write text such as:

The HTML specification
is maintained by the W3C.

and any instance of those words in the text will become:

The <abbr title="Hyper Text Markup Language">HTML</abbr> specification
is maintained by the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>.

[fletcher]

I'm not sold on this one yet.

1) As you mention, not sure about the proper LaTeX/ODF equivalent. 2) Automatically applying the abbreviation to every instance of the word throughout the text might be a bit much. Then you get into questions like --- should it be first mention in chapter? section? only the first mention?

If you come up with (or find) a more refined algorithm with clear definitions of behavior that make sense, and don't seem overly intrusive, I can certainly consider it.

[nesono]

Howdies!

There is the acronym package for LaTeX! I actually have been searching for something like that in mmd :)

The acronym package works as follows:

• include package:
  \usepackage{acronym}
• define the acronyms format: \acrodef{key}[short]{long}
\acrodef{cq}[CQ]{Conversational Quality}
\acrodef{ci}[CI]{Conversational Interactivity}
• use short version
  \acs{cq} -- CQ
• use long version
  \acl{cq} -- Conversational Quality
• use full version
  \acf{cq} -- Conversational Quality (CQ)
• use automatic version `\ac{cq} -- expands to full at first occurrence, short otherwise

Maybe it would be nice to have mappings like this, too.

Thus, define the acronyms e.g. using *[HTML]: Hyper Text Markup Language

Use the automatic version HTML

Use short version *[HTML][s]

Use long version `*[HTML][l]

Use full version *[HTML][f]

I really would like to see such a thing in mmd - would ease a lot of pain for me :] Best Regards,

jochen

[klepas]

Ditto. I would love to see acronyms/abbreviations implemented.

I’m doing some work for my local government at the moment, currently investigating improving the existing (incredibly inaccessible) OOXML → (somewhat accessible) PDF & HTML workflow. The vast majority of anything textual conceived by the Australian Government over the last decade is written first and foremost in some version of MS Word, the systemic downside of which is that it renders downstream publishing of such documents in a range of formats and types of mediums, particularly with accessibility in mind, really difficult. One idea I’m investigating is speeding up the workflow by using (Multi)Markdown where possible and/or as an intermediate descriptive markup for faster document conversion. Having acronym/abbreviation support added to MultiMarkdown would be awesome as we still process HTML(5)’s abbr tags manually, which are used extensively in government publications.

[fletcher]

Reopening just to keep this on my radar. Not promising anything yet.

[chrismajewski]

My context is also government, Canadian. I converted to markdown ages ago and would flip to to MMD in a heartbeat if you had two more things.

• I'd need acronyms, the Govt. is alphabet soup. You can write sentences with acronyms and little else.
• I'd need your HTML and PDF to pass WCAG 2.0, it's mostly the tables.

I presently rely on a forked version of http://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/extra/, I provided him with a WCAG friendly version he didn't pull.

A bit further down the chain; I'm presently on a team investigating a digital library for all governmental documents. Markdown is a longshot but I do have a general agreement to use a "convertible format" if MD had a better conversion path to RDF I'd have a compelling argument to make the Canadian Govt a Markdown shop.

[fletcher]

OK. This is now added to github. Test it out and let me know how it works.

http://fletcher.github.io/MultiMarkdown-4/abbreviations

(Remember, peg-multimarkdown is deprecated, MMD-4 is the current version).