h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am still (or again) trying to translate a text from English into German. This acronym comes up again and again: CIM. A typical sentence might be: "Hours worked are recorded using the CIM system."

Do you know what that means (and if you do, will you please tell me?)

Thanks,
Y.

Just trying to put my three questions next to each other on the Ask Hootoo List...

Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems is what I take it to mean but does anyone know anything else.

well CIM could also be a Customer Information Management system.
Or other, is there any reference in the document to a company name or application name which might apply to this? Then at least we would be able to try and identify which of the many acronyms it is!

Any chance of a little more context?

I'm doing exactly the same thing at the moment - French to English - but it's difficult to help with out-of-context terms.

erm, just a question on translation, but if it is a TLA then aren;t these usually not translated? So a CIM, whatever a CIM is, would be a CIM in dutch, german, english, french etc. Like the TGV is the TGV in english even though it stands for french words?

I was about to say that Icky

*pretends she didn't see the post*

If it is an acronym then I wouldn't worry about translating it - somewhere towards the beginning of the doc it should be expanded to the full meaning and you could traslate that if necessary. If it is never explained then it is either such an industry-standard term that it is assumed that everyone knows what it means (so no translation needed) or the author forgot to expand it (so no translation possible).

Problem solved

The answer to that last one of course is... it depends!

Yup, I wouldn't translate TGV in a technical manual for the Eurostar - if it were for public consumption I'd probably follow the abbreviation with a brief explanation the first time it appears in the document...

However, some TLAs do translate....

for instance:

English CAD/CAM
French CFAO (Conception et Fabrication assistées par Ordinateur)

In short, depends on the term, depends on the client and depends on the readership.

well that's just the French being damn awkward again isn't it?

Sorry!

Tell me about it!

What's a TLA?

a TLA is exactly what it says it is. Its a TLA which is TLA is, a TLA.

Three Letter Acronym

don't be a spoilsport!

Ictoan, you are a paragon of clarity.

Shouldn't that be Ictoan, you a a POC...

I'll get me coat...

You see that? He called me a cinema! Right that's it, I'm off to tell the mods!!

Sorry Ictoan but I'm afraid that was a simulpost

Ictoan, you're an Odeon of tolerance!

I think I'd prefer to be the StarCity of Clarity, or SCC as it is better known