Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!uci-ics!gateway From: zben@umd5.umd.EDU (Ben Cranston) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400 Subject: Re: Dutch names in X.400 and/or RFC 1148 Summary: All come back on query, unique one for sending mail Message-ID: <6641@umd5.umd.edu> Date: 9 Jun 90 09:01:50 GMT References: <9006080903.AA26008@jerry.inria.fr> Reply-To: Ben Cranston Organization: University of Maryland, College Park Lines: 30 Approved: usenet@PARIS.ICS.UCI.EDU x-attn: jns Please excuse comment from one who is NOT terribly educated to the X.400 way of doing things. In the Real World telephone companies arrange to have all these names sort together so a human being can see them all in one context and have the maximum information available when she makes her choice. Which exact place is really a secondary question, although there will usually be good human-interface grounds for making this decision. If this means "van der" gets ignored in the sorting this is OK. As stated by others, the apostrophe in o'brien gets ignored, the space in "de vries" (of course this is going to be language and culture dependant). Perhaps the Scottish and Irish have to deal with Mc/Mac/Mac as well. So, we have to figure out how to get all the "equivalent" names onto a screen for the sender to choose which one she really wants. This requires a very "loose" match procedure. When the choice is made (or in return addresses) we need a UNIQUE address, which implies a very "tight" matching procedure. I suggest the appropriateness of X400 be judged on its ability to support this kind of real-world problem solving rather than try to arbitrarily get people to change their names to fit an insufficiently general preconception. Sorry if this is belaboring the obvious... -- "It's all about Power, it's all about Control All the rest is lies for the credulous" -- Man-in-the-street interview in Romania one week after Ceaucescu execution.