The following notes are included by the author in the file
vera.texi in the distributed package.  I have omitted those sections
included in the copyright and Changelog files and certain material
that would not be interesting in this context, such as material
pertaining to installation as an info file.

About...
********

*V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms*

V.E.R.A. is a free list of acronyms all of which are used in the field
of computing.

V.E.R.A. is primarily meant to be used as an online reference, although
some efforts have been taken to make its TeX output looking acceptable.
However I doubt that somebody would like to print it.  The original
release compiled to 250 pages.

This edition is a special contribution to the GNU project similar to
the version 5.8 of V.E.R.A.  It contains approximately 8914 acronyms.

The idea to make V.E.R.A. available in Texinfo format came after reading
two other Info files both of which are available on the Internet, the
_Standards_ and the _Languages_ file, both dealing with antique DEC
mainframe environments and both distributed stand-alone; that is, both
are not serving as a software manual like most of Texinfo files. I
thought it would be very handy to have a list of acronyms available
while using Emacs.

It may be considered only a very little contribution.  However I make
it to express my appreciation for the GNU project and its philosophy.
This project does not only make software available free to everyone, it
also seems that it sets the only standard `everyone' supports nowadays.

I started V.E.R.A. around easter 1993.  The ASCII version is being
posted to the German=speaking newsgroups _z-netz.alt.listen_ and
_de.etc.lists_ every three months.  It is not being posted to an
international newsgroup, because the introduction as well as many
internal references are only available in German.

Please note that the original version of V.E.R.A. is not related to the
to the Free Software Foundation or the GNU project at all.

The list is far from being complete as dozens of new acronyms evolve
every month.  Also I am not an every day Unix user, so I am pretty sure
that a lot of acronyms from the Unix world are missing.  The same is
true for the Apple world.  Please don't be angry if your field of
computing seems little or not represented at all. Instead please
consider contributing the missing acronyms to let other people share
what you know.

The shift from the original format of V.E.R.A. to Texinfo format took a
whole week.  Please forgive any errors which still remain.  For hints
how to submit corrections or to report bugs, please see *Note History::.

For a more in-depth discussion of some of the more common acronyms
contained in this document you may want to consider visiting the _Free
Online Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC)_, at least if you have access
to the World Wide Web.  It can be found at
http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc (as of June 2001).

List format
***********

*V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms*

Some notes on the systematic approach of the acronym list:

Because often acronyms are being referenced not very unique in style,
the acronyms in V.E.R.A. do not contain any special characters; only
characters and numbers are used.  Please remember this, when you are
searching for acronyms.

German umlauts are expressed with AE, ae, OE, oe, UE, ue and ss.

Examples:

ASN.1 = ASN1
OS/2 = OS2
DFUE, Foerderung, Grossforschungseinrichtung, ...

What is thought to be the common style can be found at the end of the
line(s) in quotation marks.

Examples:

ASN1
     Abstract Syntax Notation One (OSI), "ASN.1"

ATT
     American Telephone and Telegraph, "AT&T"



Style of the acronym expansions
===============================

The acronym expansions basically follow their acronyms in style.
Exceptions are made if expansions are containing acronyms themselves.
This often leads to an kind of odd or even wrong orthographical style.

Examples:

AUX
     Apple UniX, "A/UX"

XT
     eXtended Technology

ACL
     Advanced CMOS Logic

Alternative expansions
======================

If alternative expansions for the same acronym are known these are
separated by a slash.  However that is not true for acronyms of
basically different meanings.

Examples:

AE
     Apple Events

AE
     Application Entity / Environment / Engineering (APE)

Additional explanations
=======================

Terms in square brackets show additional explanations, of which do not
directly belong to the acronym's expansion, but rather to the acronym's
meaning.

Examples:

ARM
     Annotated [c++] Reference Manual

RLL
     Run Length Limited [encoding]

Reference tags for acronyms
===========================

The terms in parenthesis which often appear behind the expansions are
reference links to certain topics or firms and should help you to get an
idea of in which context an acronym is being used.

Examples:

WB
     WorkBench (Amiga)

WYSIWYG
     What You See Is What You Get (DTP)

Please note that the original version of V.E.R.A. is meant to be
formatted in a hypertext environment.  Thus some references may seem
redundant in an environment which does not support such links.

Examples:

API
     Application Program Interface (API)

Concatenated acronyms
=====================

Often-used concatenated acronyms appear without the space or any special
characters between them.

Examples:

AMTPE
     Apple Media Tool Programming Environment (Apple), "AMT PE"

RISCOS
     RISC Operating System (Acorn), "RISC OS"

Acronyms pointing to versions
=============================

When there is a series of related acronyms differing by a number at the
end, V.E.R.A. usually has just one entry, which omits the number.  For
example, there are many versions of MNP (Microcom Networking Protocol),
distinguished by numbers; but we do not list MNP4, MNP5 or MNP10, only
MNP.

So if you look for an acronym that ends in a number, and you don't find
it, try leaving out the number(s).

File extensions
===============

Please note that file extensions are not covered by V.E.R.A. at the
moment, although some exceptions were made. You will not find things
like EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) or GIF (Graphics Interchange Format).

There are many such lists on the Internet if you should be looking for
file extensions.

Gaps
====

You will probably notice that some acronym expansions or references are
tagged with three question marks (`???').  This indicates that an
expansion or reference is still missing or uncertain.

Acronym
*******

An acronym is a word derived from the initial letters or groups of
letters of several other words.

Popular examples are:
_Laser_, from "(l)ight (a)mplification by (s)timulated (e)mission of
(r)adiation", _Radar_, from "(ra)dio (d)etecting (a)nd (r)anging" or
_snafu_, which should politely be rendered as "(s)ituation (n)ormal,
(a)ll (f)ouled (u)p".

The word acronym itself derives from the Greek words _akros_ "the
highest, the most outer" and _onyma_ "name".

Please note that acronyms are always pronounced as the spelling
indicates.

*Bugs*

This edition of V.E.R.A. has been translated from German and has not
been intensively proofread.  Please report bugs concerning the use of
broken or unsound English used in this document to the current
maintainer of this document.

If you spot any faults in the acronym chapters, these will be considered
a bug too.  Please report those bugs to the current maintainer of this
document.

*Call for submissions*

This acronym list is not and will never be complete.  However if you
feel that something particular is missing, please submit it to the
current maintainer.  Your submission will be included in the next
edition of V.E.R.A.

*Current maintainer*

The current maintainer of this document is
Oliver Heidelbach <ohei [at] snafu . de>

Acknowledgments
***************

*V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms*

The following people contributed to this document:
(In order to block spam-robots all @ have been replaced with #.)

<peterk#cbmger.de.so.commodore.com>
Wolfgang Houben <castor#newswire.de>
Hans Fischer <profi#romeo.berlinet.de>
Harald Welte <h.welte#silver.nbg.sub.org>
<a.lessmann#link-k.zer>
Rainer Frohnhoff <r.frohnhoff#aworld.zer>
Marcus Cai Degler <m.c.degler#ithh.sh.sub.de>
Sven van der Meer <vdmeer#cs.tu-berlin.de>
<elmar#peggy.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de>
Patrick Hess <poseidon#newswire.de>
Hans-Georg Forster <h.g.forster#parabol.cl.sub.de>
<thahn#berg93.in-berlin.de>
<jochen#wip.mhs.compuserve.com>
Stefan Rinne <s_rinne#trashcan.mcnet.de>
Wolfgang Kopp <kopp#naranek.camelot.de>
<ismias#wi.uni-muenster.de>
<smendoza#yeti.dit.upm.es>
<tms#dame.shnet.org>
Alexander Senne <akki#terra-i.rhein-ruhr.de>
Frank Schlueter <frs#frs.in-berlin.de>
Frank-Th. Bonnemeyer <ftb%mbpdo%mbpdo.uucp#Germany.EU.net>
Olaf Naumann <amandus#esrf.fr>
Keith Edgerley <edgerley#ebu.ch>
Kristian Koehntopp <kris#schulung.netuse.de>
Andreas Kempf <Andreas_Kempf#sidoun.go.germany-online.de>
Thomas Rexroth <100414.42#compuserve.com>
Christoph Lechner <Lechner#edvz.uni-linz.ac.at>
Timothy Slater <t.slater#link-m.de>
J.P. Lodge <jpl1#doc.ic.ac.uk>
Andre Torrez <andre#frontside.com>
Jeff Jewell <jcjewell#concentric.net>
Peter H. Wendt <phw#compunet.de>
Rene Caspersen <rene#sondagsavisen.dk>
Carsten Schymik <cschy#zedat.fu-berlin.de>
Noah Friedman <friedman#splode.com>
Robert Bihlmeyer <robbe#orcus.priv.at>
Matt Hillman <dhillman#netgate.net>
Claude Gingras <CGingras#telebec.qc>
David Frewen <a-davfre#microsoft.com>
Thorsten 'thh' Hempel <thh#valis.netestate.de>
Bruno Haible <haible#ilog.fr>
Andreas Waibel <Andreas.Waibel#studbox.uni-stuttgart.de>
Martin Zierke <Zierke#ccschaper.de>
Leonard <acmeman#myriad.net>
Otto Stolz <Otto.Stolz#uni-konstanz.de>
Wolfgang Borgert
Stefan Hackebeil <stefan#hackebeil.l.uunet.de>
Wolf Ivo Lademann <wil#kiel.netsurf.de>
Werner Henze <beinhart#cs.tu-berlin.de>
Kai Reese <reese#tecs.de>
John L. Sokol <sokol#livecam.com>
Guy Dumais <dumais#rgl.polymtl.ca>
Gerhard Moeller <Gerhard.Moeller#offis.uni-oldenburg.de>
Mike Moxcey <mmoxcey#email.aphis.usda.gov>
Marco Koering <Marco.Koering#swisscom.com>
Olaf Columbus <olaf.columbus#ffm2.sni.de>
Craig Menefee <cmenefee#cwia.com>
Kevin L. Burns <kburns#netscape.com>
Timm Cordes <tc#Informatik.TU-Cottbus.DE>
Thomas Ludwig <thomas_ludwig#hotmail.com>
Torsten Halter <halter#prokom1.gg.uunet.de>
Dr. Stephan Buehne <SBUEHNE#DE.oracle.com>
H. Kronenberg <kronenberg#imst.de>
Darren Baker <dbaker#tcon.net>
Heiko Degenhardt <Heiko.Degenhardt#rz.tu-ilmenau.de>
Simon Conti <sconti#dircon.co.uk>
Mac Schwarz <mac#phil.uni-erlangen.de>
Sven Heidelbach <Sven.Heidelbach#RegTP.de>
Nicholas Stallard <Snowy#nsstalla.dialup.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Patrick Wibbeler pwibbele#Adobe.COM>
Bastian Schick <elw5basc#gp.fht-esslingen.de>
davint <davint#gensw.com>
'The Lonegunmen' <tlgm#hamburg.crosswinds.net>
Tim <directorSPAMMENOT#sympatico.ca>
Daniel Lynde <Daniel.Lynde#Gateway.com>
Jens Abromeit <jens.abromeit#tcpip-gmbh.de>
Albrecht Schmiedel <atms#alibi.in-berlin.de>
Joachim Nerz <nerz#rz.uni-mannheim.de>
Prognos M. Voedisch <Michael.Voedisch#prognos.com>
Peter A.Henning <P.Henning#FH-Karlsruhe.de>
Ricardo Linden <rlinden#gotec.com.br>
Robert Klemme <klemme#unity.de>
Axel Kielhorn <A.Kielhorn#tu-bs.de>
Mark Heitbrink <m.heitbrink#kamas.de>
Philipp Steinau <Philipp.Steinau#gmx.de>
Pressman AS/400 <STEVE.GIBSON#PRESSMAN-TOY.COM>
Uwe Borchert <borchert#informatik.unibw-muenchen.de>
Georg Oehl <oehlg#yahoo.com>
Thomas Rohde <thomas.rohde#ecrc.de>
Will <broly#online1.magnus1.com>
Knut Kuelsen <Knut_K#gmx.de>
Rene Ermler <rene.ermler#informatik.stud.uni-erlangen.de>
Brian Hines <bhines#ppl.plesman.com>
Tomasz Wegrzanowski <maniek#beer.com>
Martin Mueller <martin.mueller#iuct.fhg.de>
Florian Laws <florian#void.s.bawue.de
Adam Goode <adam#myrealbox.com>
Henning Jonat <henningjonat#home.com>
Norbert Zuber <zbx#topmail.de>
Eckard Wolff Postler <Eckard.Wolff-Postler#Gtsgroup.com>
Tomasz Wegrzanowski <maniek#beer.com>
Jennifer <jenluk#chickmail.com>
Nils <otott.buerotechnik#t-online.de>
Ernst-Guenter Giessmann <ErnstG.Giessmann#telekom.de>
Andreas Krause <akrause#nef.wh.uni-dortmund.de>
j l <jenluk#chickmail.com>
Carsten Leonhardt <leo#debian.org>
Robert D. Hilliard <hilliard#debian.org>
Nils Rennebarth <nils#ipe.uni-stuttgart.de>
Michael Schmitz <michael.schmitz#e-trend.de>
Kerstin Assmus <praktika#bechtle.de>
Michael Vielhaber <michael.vielhaber#fh-hof.de>
Martin Biallas <martin#mbiallas.de>
Joachim Ayasse <Joachim_Ayasse#genua.de>
Arvind Mollin <amollin#cisco.com>
Michael Ruehr <Michael.Ruehr#blb.de>
Stefan Westerkamp <Stefan.Westerkamp#ger.sas.com>
Nils Herzog <Nils.Herzog#DERTOUR.DE>
Thomas Lack <lack#nexgo.de>
Mock, Andreas <A.Mock#tuvit.de>
Volker Brune-Flueh <bruneflue#solutionline.com>
Thimo Koenig <thimo.konig#evidian.com>
Jim Scarborough <jims#iname.com>
Falk Hauke <falk.hauke#gmx.de>
Patrick Cowan <patrick#fifthera.com>
Tomasz Wegrzanowski <taw#users.sourceforge.net>
Christoph Probst <chris#cprobst.de>
Tim Bannister <isoma#compsoc.man.ac.uk>
Lutz Hohaus <lutz.hohaus#ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
Ingo Maurer <ingo#maurer.net>
Gerhard Brosig <Gerhard_Brosig#genua.de>
Alois Reisinger <reisi#reisi.com>
Brian Wolf/Dayacorp <brian.wolf.613#mindspring.com>
Steven Duhon <SDuhon#mpea.com>
<Philphillips28#aol.com>
Axel Veil <Axel.Veil#mediaways.net>
Tobias Ueberwasser <tobias.ueberwasser#cerberus.ch>
Karsten Huppert <ed.treppuh-netsrak#karsten-huppert.de>
Felix Schindele <zhamara#atheist.com>
Klaus Juettermann <Klaus.Juttermann#sitel.de>
Cecilie Rise <cecilie.rise#sbb.at>
Jeff Orrok <jeff#rt.com>
Ingo Russmann <ingo#linus.net-market.de>
John E. Hein <jhein#timing.com>
Christian Brandau <christian#cbra.de>
Ben Armstrong <synrg#sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>
Matthias Kring <automatthias#web.de>
Matthias Hinnah <mhinnah#deloitte.de>

About 200 acronyms dealing with the ATM subject were taken
from the online collection of the ATM forum.
By courtesy of ATM forum.

Another batch of acronyms was taken from the freely available
acronym collection "Internet Perls 22" (_iperls22.zip_).
By courtesy of William Hogg <wmhogg#execpc.com>.

A lot of military related acronyms as well as several others
were taken from the online collection of the DISA Center for
Standards.
By courtesy of DISA Center for Standards.

Thanks to all of them and everybody who should be missing by accident.

Also thanks to the following people:

Richard M. Stallman
For his encouraging words to get this edition done and some comments on
how a Texinfo file should be formatted.  Also for the efforts taken to
deal with the Systems Science Inc.  copyright/trademark incident in
April 1998.

Horst von Brand <vonbrand#sleipnir.valparaiso.cl>
For pointing to the inconsistency between the file name in
`@setfilename' (upper case) and the suggested info entry (lower case).

Ricard Torres <root#tamino.udg.es>
For pointing to some Un*x install problems in release 1.3.

Carsten Leonhardt <leo#arioch.oche.de>
For sending in a lot of spelling corrections for the text of release
1.3. It were 17 if I counted right.  What a shame.

H. Kronenberg <kronenberg#imst.de> For submitting numerous spelling
corrections for acronym expansions.

Henning Jonat <henningjonat#home.com> for sending a long list with
acronym expansions which were still missing.

Disclaimer
**********

*V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms*

This is a special GNU edition of V.E.R.A., a list dealing with
computational acronyms. It is currently maintained by Oliver Heidelbach
<ohei [at] snafu . de>.

Although V.E.R.A. has been corrected and worked over for quite a long
time, no guarantee can be given for the correctness of any part of its
contents.  Please don't get it wrong and help to correct any faults you
may find.

Please send corrections to the current maintainer.

The author suggests not to redistribute corrected versions of this
document, but instead to inform the actual maintainer about corrections
you might have.  This would help not to confuse users because of
different versions.

For a complete legal disclaimer please read *Note GNU FDL::.

Within the above restrictions the distribution of this document is
explicitly encouraged and I hope you'll find it of some value.

Please note that another version of V.E.R.A. exists, which is not
related to the GNU project.

This dictionary has nothing to do with Systems Science Inc.  or its
products.

Oliver Heidelbach (original author)
<ohei [at] snafu . de>, <ohei [de] snafu . de>

Copyright (C) 1993/2001