I18n, l10n, a11y, k8s. Do any of those mean anything to you? Unless you’ve already had them explained to you, they do not. They’re numeronyms, where numbers are used to abbreviate the word. The words being abbreviated are internationalization, localization, accessibility, and kubernetes, respectively. These kind of abbreviations have become very popular in tech writing.
I have no problem with numeronyms, especially since all of those words are long, hard to type, and even harder to spell. But please, for the love all of those that are ignorant, don’t start throwing them around without explaining what they are. The other day I was reading an article and it casually mentioned l10n with no explanation, like I was supposed to know what it meant. Sure, it’s not a big deal to find it on a search engine, but it breaks the flow of concentration that is learning something new. Plus it only takes a little more effort to add those extra letters the first time so everyone knows what the heck you’re talking about.
And a10n is “Abbreviation”. Nobody uses that, it was just a joke. Please don’t.