Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!uci-ics!gateway
From: mtxinu!jaap@uunet.uu.NET (Jaap Akkerhuis)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400
Subject: Re:  Dutch names in X.400 and/or RFC 1148
Message-ID: <1246@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jun 90 05:07:50 GMT
References: <9006071947.AA05364@cbmark.cbcc.att.com>
Reply-To: Jaap Akkerhuis <mtxinu!jaap@uunet.uu.NET>
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley
Lines: 36
Approved: usenet@PARIS.ICS.UCI.EDU
x-attn: jns


In article <9006071947.AA05364@cbmark.cbcc.att.com> mark@cbmark.cbcc.att.COM (Mark Horton) writes:
 > The problem is not unique to Dutch names - O'Brien causes similar
 > problems.
 >
 > We have a similar problem in AT&T, where everyone is in a name
 > database.  It seems to be handled by ignoring the blanks.  If I
 > ask for people named "de vries", I get 6 people, 3 as "de vries"
 > and 3 different people as "devries".  If I ask for "devries" I get
 > the same 6 people.

So it is time for AT&T to fix there database.

Note that the original requester was dealing with ``real world
problems''. For Dutch people there a name Jan van der Steen denotes
an other person then Jan vander Steen or Jan van Dersteen etc.

 >
 > If I ask for "obrien" I get many "obrien", many "o brien" and many
 > "o'brien".  So it's ignoring apostrophes too.

But mister O'Brian might not!

 >
 > I propose that you map Jan van der Steen into S="van der Steen"
 > which in 822 would become Jan.vanderSteen@domain , and have all
 > your lookup algorithms squeeze out blanks, apostrophes, and other
 > characters that cause trouble, such as hyphens.
 >

People dealing with computers on a regular base might find this
acceptable, but it isn't for ordinary people. Should we also drop
diactical marks?  That might be an insult. The list with problems continues....


	jaap