MCP Doesn't Need 30 Tools: It Needs Code

Re:MCP Doesn't Need 30 Tools: It Needs Code by cgriswald on Monday August 18, 2025 @08:13AM (#44939741)

Just so folks who want to do this know, the proper way to introduce an initialism is to use the full term on first use and put the initialism in parentheses. Thereafter just use the initialism.

Always consider your audience, but for most non-casual writing it’s a good default for a variety of reasons.

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Re:MCP Doesn't Need 30 Tools: It Needs Code by mdaniel on Monday August 18, 2025 @11:42AM (#44941859)

You're welcome to do that in print media, but on the web the proper way is the abbr element with its title attribute <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/...>. Related to the distinction, I'd bet $1 there's some fancy CSS that would actually expand the definition under @media print

I can attest the abbr is also mobile friendly, although I am for sure open to each browser doing its own UI hinting that a long-press is available for the term

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Re:MCP Doesn't Need 30 Tools: It Needs Code by cgriswald on Monday August 18, 2025 @12:38PM (#44942580)

From your source:

> Spelling out the acronym or abbreviation in full the first time it is used on a page is beneficial for helping people understand it, especially if the content is technical or industry jargon.

> Only include a title if expanding the abbreviation or acronym in the text is not possible. Having a difference between the announced word or phrase and what is displayed on the screen, especially if it's technical jargon the reader may not be familiar with, can be jarring.

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Re:MCP Doesn't Need 30 Tools: It Needs Code by crazygringo on Monday August 18, 2025 @12:47PM (#44942681)

Please read your own link. It literally says to put the definition in parentheses (same as print) on first use. Second paragraph.

<abbr> is not what you seem to think it is. But the "typical use cases" section of your link does explain what it's actually for.

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Re:MCP Doesn't Need 30 Tools: It Needs Code by jethack on Monday August 18, 2025 @12:55PM (#44942775)

Sadly abbr with title doesn't work at all on mobile Chrome [1] or Firefox [2]. Probably not Safari either, since long press on mobile means "select text" so you'd have to do some CSS trickery (and trying to hit a word-sized target with a finger is quite annoying).

[1] https://issues.chromium.org/issues/337222647 -> https://issues.chromium.org/issues/41130053

[2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468007

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