> -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Howard Brazee > Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 9:03 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Mainframe programming vs the Web > > On 11 May 2008 14:26:06 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David > Alcock) wrote: > > >Ever since the Web came along I've been annoyed by those web > >sites that won't accept spaces or dashes like for credit cards > >and phone numbers. I know that even ancient mainframe COBOL has > >support for removing them with one command. I see that it's > >just pure laziness as I suspected all along: > > > > http://www.unixwiz.net/ndos-shame.html > > I've seen "too much editing" being done in CoBOL as well. Editing > for stuff that doesn't matter - and which needs to be changed when > conditions change. > > I hate the programming to make it hard to enter your credit cards, but > I also dislike it when they don't let me put in a 80301-2472 zip code. > There are foreign postal codes that *require* longer fields. And the > U.S. postal service wants these as well. > > And let me type in phone numbers with dashes and parenthesis if I > want.
True! Validation of "postal codes" is a nightmare. Unlike credit card numbers and telephone numbers, each individual government makes up its own rules. The only way to validate is to first get the ISO (international) country code, then possibly have a validation for each country. The other thing that irritates many is the US (and English?) centric "First Name", "Middle Name (or initial)", "Last Name". I know that Hispanics often have a LOT of "middle" names, and they are important to them. But how to allow that is a difficulty that I would prefer to avoid. Along with the usual "How many characters should I allow for a name?". -- John McKown Senior Systems Programmer HealthMarkets Keeping the Promise of Affordable Coverage Administrative Services Group Information Technology The information contained in this e-mail message may be privileged and/or confidential. It is for intended addressee(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, reproduction, distribution or other use of this communication is strictly prohibited and could, in certain circumstances, be a criminal offense. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply and delete this message without copying or disclosing it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
