PTP-SD is a type of algorithm.
PTP stands for "probabilistic tree pruning"
SD stands for "sphere decoding"
PTP-SD is a type of algorithm that uses PTP with SD.
My question is about the use of the hyphen here. In the paper I am currently editing, the author has written the following:
"Increasing radii algorithm (IRA) [10] and probabilistic tree pruning with sphere decoding (PTP-SD) [11] reduces the complexity by adopting the different radii in each layer instead of fixed radii used in the literature."
In such examples, the spelled out form contains no hyphen. Is this okay? Should there be one? If so, where should it go? Why should only the abbreviation contain a hyphen but not the spelled out form?
Best Answer
It seems to me the hyphen is not meant to represent the word "with", but rather to separate the two parts of the acronym, PTP and SD. This separation indicates that PTP-SD is made up of its two parts, and it does a better job of representing the algorithm than combining everything into one big PTPSD.
Similarly, consider the acronym CD-ROM. The hyphen here is standard, and denotes that this is a Compact Disc which uses Read Only Memory. Since ROM is itself an acronym, putting the hyphen there makes it clear that CD-ROM has something to do with ROM and isn't just an entirely new acronym.