Four year timeline:
The * links to the appropriate mailing list thread.
June 08, 2002: The idea is born [*]
A user is unsure (and submits a bug report to the php bugs system) what CVS means so a lightbulb flashes: How about we display its “meaning” when a user puts their mouse cursor over the acronym. Examples: ATM and CVS. Seems reasonable as this is the purpose of the acronym tag in HTML. So it appears XSL was the main reason (stumbling block) it wasn’t implemented.December 04, 2002: Added the acronym tag to TODO [*]
As a young man I was still wet behind the ears and thought the TODO was a live file used by all. It’s not. But on this date, so this idea would not be forgetten (like many are), I added this acronym tags idea to the TODO file.
July 27, 2004: Attepted XSL attempt failed [*]
I attempted to write XSL to make this work but failed. Goba suggested waiting for livedocs so waited I did. Moments later I submitted a livedocs feature request for the acronyms tag expander, but that site is long gone now. Whether or not XSL is a chinese dialect remains to be seen, it sure seems like it! At this point I wish I had dug deeper into livedocs and added this feature but that didn’t happen.
February 19, 2006: Another acronym bug [*]
This bug report suggests the removal of all these “useless” uses of the acronym tag in the manual. I refer to the 2002 suggestion, and that livedocs will fix it.
June 25, 2006: The acronym tag is born
This marks the day the acronym tag was born in livedocs although it requires simplexml currently. An acronyms table was created, with ASCII, CVS, and XML being the first tested acronyms. Writing a parser for this was much easier in PHP then the XSL fiasco I went through in 2004. Not bashing XSL here, just my (and most peoples) lack of knowledge of it. XSL[T] is complicated and strange.
June 28, 2006: RFC: Docbook markup for acronym tags [*]
This RFC requested comments for where the acronyms.xml file should be stored, (phpdoc/entities/) and what format it should use (variablelist). People felt it was good to go. There has been some talk on whether or not this file should be translated but I don’t think it should be because it’s simplly an acronym expander.
June 28, 2006: acronyms.xml committed [*]
I commited acronyms.xml to CVS with about 40 acronyms within it. Nuno immediatly fixed a typo.
2008?: Acronym tag system and livedocs are live online
Only time will tell when this happens, are you ready? Hopefully the next stage isn’t set in the year 2008 but we’ll see… Should be online the summer of 2006.