Tom Marchant wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:54:59 -0600, Chase, John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
There was also a story a few years ago about a man who had his entire
name legally changed to the single word "Bear".
There was an article in the early 1970's, I think it was in Computer
World, about someone who tried to change his legal name to a four
digit number. It was denied and noted that it would cause havoc
with computer programs. Then there's the Dead Kennedys band member
whose stage name is 6025.
Is it Friday yet?
IMHO this is partially on topic. People provide strange names
(off-topic) and hwoe they interact with computer systems (ON-TOPIC).
AFAIK there is in some countries *official standard* for people's names.
It solves majority of the problems: your system should be compatible
with public standard. If your system is not - your problem. If a
customer has "incompatible" name - *not your problem*. The person should
provide how to record his(her) name to standard format.
Of course the standard provides many other advantages: COMPATIBILITY.
Data interchange does not require truncating, reformatting, etc.
Simple is better.
I'm not sure whether "6025" is acceptable, but quite realistic names in
Poland can be nightmare:
Anastazja Konstantynopolitanczykowianeczka-Czestochowska
Andrzej Au
Marcin Zyps albo Cyps
<off-topic>
BTW: I liked Dead Kennedys. It's nice that anybody remembers them <g>
</off topic>
--
Radoslaw Skorupka
Lodz, Poland
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