On 26 February 2012 18:58, Stefan Weil <[email protected]> wrote: > Many authors regard "iff" as unsuitable in formal writing > (citation from Wikipedia).Personally, I'd also prefer to see > 'if and only if' in full length or in symbolic notation (<==>) > when this is the intention, not an abbreviation like 'iff'.
Yes, I used to use 'iff' (a hangover from having studied maths...) but I now think that outside those fields it's too easy for a reader to confuse it with a typo for 'if' and so it's better avoided (by using "if" when that's OK and expanding to "if and only if" in the odd cases where the distinction actually matters.) -- PMM
