Metanorma: Aequitate Verum

Metanorma for IEEE SA

Terms and definitions

General

Every IEEE standard requires a “Definitions” clause to hold terminology entries important to the standard. This clause is designated as "Clause 3" in accordance to the 2021 IEEE SA Style Manual, 12.4.3.

The “Definitions” section provides a single point of truth for terms and concepts used within this standard.

Definitions provided by all IEEE SA documents are entered into the IEEE Standards Dictionary Online (at http://dictionary.ieee.org).

Note
 The “Definitions” clause is called by various names in other SDOs, for instance, at OGC, ISO and IEC it is “Terms and definitions”.

Content of the definitions clause

The following quote from the IEEE SA Style Manual indicates the types of terminology entries to be made available in the definitions clause.

English words should be used in accordance with their definitions in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Electrical and electronics terms not defined in Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary should be used in accordance with their definitions in the Dictionary Online. The Dictionary is a continually-updated electronic version of the former IEEE 100, The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms.

Working groups are strongly encouraged to use definitions that already exist instead of creating new definitions or slightly modifying existing definitions. During MEC and during IEEE SA ballot, working groups may be asked to validate the use and presentation of terms. For assistance, IEEE draft developers may also find useful the IEC Multilingual Dictionary of Electricity, Electronics, and Telecommunications and the IEC International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV).

— IEEE SA Style Manual 2021
12.4.2 General terminology usage

Terminology models

Terminology entries in IEEE adhere to the terminology specifications described in the IEEE SA Style Manual, 12.4.

In Metanorma, the underlying terminology entries adhere to the international standard for terminology representation, ISO 10241-1, which is a superset of the IEEE terminology requirements and therefore fully supports the expression of them.

Definitions clauses

An IEEE SA document uses one of the following clause structures.

A typical definitions clause, which does not provide additional acronyms and abbreviations, looks like this:

  • 3. Definitions

The Metanorma AsciiDoc encoding for this structure is demonstrated below.

Example 1. Defining the Definitions clause
== Definitions

=== acceleration-insensitive drift rate
related:seealso[drift rate]
related:seealso[systematic drift rate]

The component of...

=== code set
related:see[coded character set]

=== coded character set
related:equivalent[code set]

A set of characters.

=== drift rate
The slope at a stated time of...

[.source%adapted]
<<iso-iec_9945-1>>

Renders as:

3. Definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply. The IEEE Standards Dictionary Online should be consulted for terms not defined in this clause.

acceleration-insensitive drift rate: The component of …​ See also: drift rate; systematic drift rate.

code set: See: coded character set.

coded character set: A set of characters …​ Syn: code set.

drift rate: The slope at a stated time of …​ (adapted from ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003).

When the document provides additional acronyms and abbreviations, the definition clause needs to be structured as follows:

A combined definitions and acronyms structure:

  • 3 Definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations

  • 3.1 Definitions

  • 3.2 Acronyms and abbreviations

The sample Metanorma AsciiDoc encoding is shown below.

Example 2. Defining the combined Definitions, acronyms and abbreviations clause
== Definitions, acronyms and abbreviations
=== Definitions

==== acceleration-insensitive drift rate
related:seealso[drift rate]
related:seealso[systematic drift rate]

The component of...

==== code set
related:see[coded character set]

==== coded character set
related:equivalent[code set]

A set of characters.

==== drift rate
The slope at a stated time of...

[.source%adapted]
<<iso-iec_9945-1>>

...

=== Acronyms and abbreviations

DER:: distributed emission regeneration
DIS:: distributed interactive simulation

Renders as:

3. Definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations

3.1 Definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply. The IEEE Standards Dictionary Online should be consulted for terms not defined in this clause.

acceleration-insensitive drift rate: The component of …​ See also: drift rate; systematic drift rate.

code set: See: coded character set.

coded character set: A set of characters …​ Syn: code set.

drift rate: The slope at a stated time of …​ (adapted from ISO/IEC 9945-1:2003).

…​

3.2 Acronyms and abbreviations

DER

distributed emission regeneration

DIS

distributed interactive simulation

Terms and concepts that are referred to from the “Definitions” clause, such as from concept relationships, but not defined in a document, must already be available in the IEEE Standards Dictionary Online (at http://dictionary.ieee.org).

Optionally, if there are informative terminology entries, IEEE allows a “Glossary” section to be set in an Annex, which only consists of informative terms.

Entering terminology entries

There are in general the following kinds of terms:

  • Terms that are newly defined in this document;

  • Terms that are entirely sourced from another document;

  • Terms that are sourced from another document but modified within this standard.

A newly defined term:

==== coded character set (1)
related:equivalent[code set] (2)

A {{set}} of {{character,character}}s. (3)

  1. coded character set provides the term to be defined.

  2. related:equivalent[code set] indicates that the defined term has an equivalent relationship with the term code set.

  3. Text here provides the definition of the term. {{set}} here refers to another term defined within the document. {{character,characters}} here indicate that the term "character" is defined in this document.

A sourced term:

==== systematic drift rate

That component of drift rate that...

[.source]
<<IEEE_Std_260.1>> (1)

  1. Term is sourced but no modification is done.

A sourced but adapted (modified) term looks like this:

==== drift rate

The slope at a stated time of...

[.source%adapted] (1)
<<iso-iec_9945-1>>

  1. The %adapted option indicates that the definition has been modified.

Note
 Different from the sourcing of terms in other SDOs, the exact modifications made are not elaborated in IEEE SA documents.

Acronyms and abbreviations

As part of a defined term

In IEEE SA documents, acronyms and abbreviations can be assigned to terms as according to the IEEE SA Style Manual, 12.5 "Acronyms and abbreviations".

In order to encode acronyms or abbreviations in the terminological entry, the following syntax is to be used.

Example 3. Encoding a defined term with an acronym or abbreviation
==== input reference axis

preferred:[IRA]

[%metadata]
abbreviation-type:: initialism

The direction of an axis.

Renders as:

input reference axis (IPA): The direction of an axis.

The metadata is specific to the preferred:[] term that it follows; so this says that "IRA" is an initialism, not "input reference axis".

As a separate clause

As per IEEE SA Style Manual, 12.5 "Acronyms and abbreviations", acronyms and abbreviations can be shown as a separate clause.

Example 4. Encoding a defined term with an acronym or abbreviation
// This should be placed as Clause 3.2, after Clause 3.1 "Definitions"
=== Acronyms and abbreviations

DER:: distributed emission regeneration
DIS:: distributed interactive simulation

Renders as:

3.2 Acronyms and abbreviations

DER

distributed emission regeneration

DIS

distributed interactive simulation

Term relationships

A defined term may define links to other defined terms in the document or to terms in the IEEE Standards Dictionary Online.

The allowed relationships are codified in IEEE SA Style Manual, 12.4 "Definitions", being:

Cross-references should occur after the definition and may consist of the following classes, in the order shown: Contrast:, Syn:, See:, and See also:. Contrast: refers to a term with an opposite or substantially different meaning. Syn: refers to a synonymous term. See: refers to a term where the desired definition can be found. See also: refers to a related term. The cross-references listed under these headings should be in alphabetical order, in bold type, and separated by semicolons when there are more than one.

— IEEE SA Style Manual
12.4 "Definitions"

The allowed relationships are entered using this syntax:

related:{type}[term]

Where:

type

is one of the following values.

contrast

(generates "Contrast:") refers to a term with an opposite or substantially different meaning.

equivalent

(generates "Syn:") refers to a term that has equivalent meaning.

see

(generates "See:") refers to a term where the desired definition can be found.

seealso

(generates "See also:") refers to a related term.

term

is the name of the term to be referenced.

Example 5. Example of entering concept relationships
==== acceleration-insensitive drift rate
related:seealso[drift rate]
related:seealso[systematic drift rate]

The component of...

==== code set
related:see[coded character set]

==== coded character set
related:equivalent[code set]

==== input reference axis
related:contrast[output reference axis]

The direction of an axis.

Renders as:

acceleration-insensitive drift rate: The component of …​ See also: drift rate; systematic drift rate.

code set: See: coded character set.

coded character set: A set of characters …​ Syn: code set.

input reference axis: The direction of an axis. Contrast: output reference axis

For a concept that has multiple designations (terms), defined through the preferred:[…​] or admitted:[…​] commands, Metanorma automatically generates a “Syn:” relationship for the original designation and an additional entry for the other designations with no definition but only contains a “See:” that links back to the original.