ppt的缩写是怎么来的？

ppt的缩写是怎么来的？

我在一篇博客上也看过这样的提问，其博主为了搞清楚这个问题，特地请教了PPT的编写者Robert Gaskins。而且别人也回了一封信。大概意思如下：1.PPT并不是PowerPoint的缩写，而是简称。（这个要怪我的英语水平不好，在Gaskin看来， acronym（缩写）和abbreviation（简称）是不一样）。
2.最初他编写PowerPoint的时候是给苹果系统写的，但当时他们已经预见到了微软将来可能一统江湖，所以在文件命名的时候还是遵循了微软的规则，就是后缀名不能超过3个字母，文件名不能超过8个字母。
3.在起名字的时候，很自然的就把PowerPoint的前中后三个字母提取出来成为后缀名，接着又衍生出一个系列如PPS（PowerPoint show)等。
4.在新的微软系统中，已经没有了后缀名只能3个字母的限制，所以2007版的就有4个字母的后缀名了，如PPTX，这个X是基于XML而来的。 虽然最后的答案还是没有出人意料，但总算也了解到了事情的来龙去脉，是一份不错的收获。将Gaskin的原信附上，大家一起学习吧。
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Dear Eddie Liu,

Thanks for writing about the meaning of "PPT".

"PPT" is not properly an acronym for PowerPoint, because

"Acronyms ... are abbreviations that are formed using the
initial components in a phrase or name. These components may
be individual letters (as in CEO) or parts of words (as in Benelux or
Delmarva)."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym

An acronym can be formed by taking the initial letters of multiple
words, sometimes only the important words, for example

BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
CNN: Cable News Network
USA: United States of America

(there are other types as well).

So an acronym is a special kind of abbreviation formed from initial
components such as letters, and "PPT" was not made up that way. (All
acronyms are abbreviations, but most abbreviations are not acronyms.)

The need for the abbreviation "PPT" came about in this way. In
Microsoft's early MS-DOS system and later in Windows, every filename
ended in a dot (".") followed by a short "file type". (See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_file_types.) In MS-DOS in the
1970s, and then in early versions of Windows built on MS-DOS, the file
type had to be only 3 letters. A filename had a maximum of 8 letters,
then the dot, then a 3-letter file type, so this naming format was
called "8+3". When PowerPoint was invented, we had to decide on a
3-letter abbreviation to identify its files to the operating system.
Even though PowerPoint was developed first for Macintosh, we knew from
the very beginning that the most important target would be Microsoft
Windows, so we planned for it all along.

In English, abbreviations of single words are often formed by
taking the first letter of the word and the last letter of the word,
adding between them the most important letters from the middle to show
what the word sounds like. For example,

MR: mister
JR: junior
DR: doctor
REVD: reverend
MGMT: management

We made "PPT" as an abbreviation for PowerPoint, by taking the
first 'P" and the last "T", adding between them the middle "P":
PowerPoinT. This was natural, because in English "power" is a common
word all by itself, and "point" is a common word all by itself, so
people understand "PowerPoint" as a combination of the two
words--further indicated by the fact that we capitalized both "P"s.

"PPT" was a natural English abbreviation for the word "PowerPoint"
and it was the right length (3 letters) to be an MS-DOS file type.

As to the others, any computer program deals with many types of
files. Each file type required a different 3-letter abbreviation. We
made up other file types by making them similar to "PPT"--for
instance, "PPS" for "PowerPoint Show". Since they all start with "P",
you can sort a list of files by their file types and find all the ones
for the PowerPoint program sorted together.

Much later (as you say, starting with PowerPoint 2007), Microsoft
introduced new files formats, the XML-based formats. By this time,
file types could be longer than 3 characters because the foundations
of Windows had been entirely rewritten. For example, in early
versions of Windows, HTML files could only have the file type "HTM"
("index.htm"), but now you often see HTML files of file type "HTML"
"index.html").

Microsoft used this freedom to make 4-letter file types for the new
formats, by using the old file types ("PPT", "PPS") and adding an "X"
(from "XML"), resulting in new file types "PPTX", "PPSX" and so forth.
This way you can look at a listing of one of the new files and see
instantly that it is, for example, "the XML revision of a PPT file".

I hope this explains how "PPT" came about.

Best regards,

Robert Gaskins