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When should I use “a” vs “an”?

I'm writing about concepts in programming languages, and for instance in the Java language, so-called annotations are declared with an "@" sign in front of them.

When such annotations are referred to in the text, is the "@" typically "pronounced" by the reader, or is it silent? That is, would you write

Use an @SuppressWarnings annotation

or

Use a @SuppressWarnings annotation

My gut feeling is that the latter variant is better, but then again, I'm not a native English speaker (nor a native Java programmer).

I would prefer to be explicit, and thus not to write

Use a SuppressWarnings annotation

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Eyvind
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    This is not a question of whether it's pronounced by the reader. It's a question of whether it's pronounced by the writer. Whichever pronunciation the writer prefers, he writes down. And whichever pronunciation is written down, is the one the writer uses. The reader is free to use a different pronunciation himself on other occasions, but again, then he would write it down differently, and you would have to read it aloud the way he intended. – RegDwigнt Nov 15 '12 at 09:42
  • @RegDwighт: Is @ a vovel or a consonant? – SF. Nov 15 '12 at 09:53
  • @RegDwighт: Ok then, I guess the question becomes: Is the @ sign in this context typically pronounced by writers of texts about Java? – Eyvind Nov 15 '12 at 10:03
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    @SF: it is a sign. That is either pronounced "at" or not pronounced at all. If you pronounce "@SuppressWarnings" as "at SuppressWarnings", you will say and write an. If you pronounce "@SuppressWarnings" as "SuppressWarnings", you will say and write a. The question has been beaten to death on this site, and it never was rocket science to begin with. – RegDwigнt Nov 15 '12 at 10:03
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    @Eyvind for that we'd need a corpus of all texts about Java ever, and no other texts. Then we could compare how often a is used vs. an in such situations. Since such a corpus doesn't exist, your best bet is to pay attention to what your peers use and go with that. Though again, when you are the writer, you are the writer, so ultimately you are free to use what you are comfortable with. Just like with "a SQL" vs. "an SQL". – RegDwigнt Nov 15 '12 at 10:09

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