Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway From: Dan@dna.lth.se (Dan Oscarsson) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400 Subject: Re: Order of fields in business card printed O/R-address format Message-ID: <1991Apr5.131712.20285@lth.se> Date: 5 Apr 91 20:19:13 GMT References: <05APR199101:21:59NTIN36@UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.GEC-B> Organization: Computer Science, Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden Lines: 43 Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU x-attn: jns ReSent-From: Jerry Sweet ReSent-To: mhsnews@ICS.UCI.EDU In article <05APR199101:21:59NTIN36@UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.GEC-B> Nigel Bevan writes: > >The standards group gave long and exhausive consideration to different >possible orders for the representation of fields. One point was clear - >most ordinary users expect (and find it convenient for) an address to start >with the person's name. For example the Retix X.400 interface on the PC >uses a form-fill layout which starts with the person's name. (Which, >incidentally, is a vast improvement on earlier Retix interfaces!) The >standards group concluded that you need to associate a person's name with >organisational information, so that after G and S you need O or OU >information. > >- G, S, O, OU1, OU2, OU3, OU4 seems a better order for the user than >G, S, OU4, OU3, OU2, OU1, O, as for the user the G, S, O combination will in >most cases itself be unique and the OUs are then given in ascending numerical >order. > >(Analogous conventions can be found in postal addresses.) > But a postal address looks like: Dan Oscarsson Dept. of Computer science Lund Institute of Technology Lund Sweden That is: N, OU, O, T, C Why not define that a mail address should look like: name, [,subunit]..., unit, country My address for email could then be: Dan Oscarsson,DNA,LTH,se No need for G= S= (why separate the parts of a name?) or other prefixes, no need for ugly slashes. This type of address could easily be looked up in a directory like X.500. Dan -- Dan Oscarsson Department of Computer Science Lund Institute of Technology e-mail: Dan.Oscarsson@dna.lth.se Box 118 S-221 00 Lund, Sweden