History and Origins
The exact phrase three-letter acronym appeared in the literature in 1975. Three-letter acronyms were used as mnemonics in biological sciences, and their practical advantage was promoted by Weber in 1982. They are used in many other fields, but the term TLA is particularly associated with computing. The specific generation of three-letter acronyms in computing was mentioned in a JPL report of 1982.
In 1980, the manual for the Sinclair ZX81 home computer used and explained TLA. In 1988, in a paper titled "On the cruelty of really teaching computer science", eminent computer scientist Edsger W. Dijkstra wrote "Because no endeavour is respectable these days without a TLA ..." By 1992 it was in a Microsoft handbook.
Use of "TLA" spread through both industry and academia, and it has now become a generally understood initialism.
Read more about this topic: Three Letter Acronym
Famous quotes containing the words history and, history and/or origins:
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)