Thanks Diane. It is a data issue... but also a programming challenge as well. It sounds like your environment has had standards in place that make it easy to live in the "Upper/lower case world", but this isn't the case with many applications, nor with a lot of legacy software and/or data. And it's really a challenge to implement this type of standard "mid-stream".
As for the searching I was talking about, it was using the verb SEARCH - where you search across an entire file - not just attributes - so, although the dictionaries are great for one field searching - that's a different animal. On the same note, anyone gotten "yelled at" from a blackberry lately? On these "hand-held" units, (phones, etc), living in the "upper/lower case world" is, well, not really practical. And I get emails - in all upper case - from these devices all the time. But, boy, the possibilities of being able to take these devices into use as "remote data entry" devices are really intriguing - aren't they? Laura -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 9:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [U2] Upper Case Only Isn't that really more of a data issue though, rather than a programming issue? I absolutely believe that data should be stored in U/L case, but that doesn't affect the programming at all. For searching on this data, we just use dictionaries that put it in all upper case - very easy to search on. -Dianne Quoting Laura Hirsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > I think that the upper/lower case issue -- albeit not a show stopper for > anyone - is "much worse than that". > > Besides the "internal" back-n-forth about programming in basic, and what > case should be "current", I think that a bigger issue revolves around data > presentation and converting to a "modern" display and "modern" usage. > > For example, reports, mailing labels, "Dear John" letters... I mean, as a > programmer, I can use MCU - that works great, MCL - not as useful, but, > still works as documented. MCT? It's embarrassing. Dr. Mark Jones, MD is > almost impossible to return. Mark Jones III - allows me to send a "state of > the art" letter addressed to "Mark Jones Iii". > > SEARCH is another of my pet peeves. It should be *smart enough* to figure > out, or at least provide an option to be case insensitive. Maybe it does, > and I'm not aware. But it just always seemed crazy. So, I search - string? > "MARK JONES" then "Mark Jones" then "Mark jones" then "mark jones". > > BTREES? Although some may disagree, Mark Jones and MARK JONES are the same > thing - at least in our business environment. > > I think that if we want to work in a world that doesn't shout at us all the > time, then we need to look beyond how to write a basic program > > That's my $.02 (hey, what happened to the "cent" character... it used to be > there... I know it was... oh, maybe that was on the typewriters that didn't > allow lower case) > > Laura > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mats Carlid > Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 6:23 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [U2] Upper Case Only > > One reason for why the upper case only thing started that has been mentioned > in this thread is that some early terminals didn't have lower case. > > This is indeed true but it used to be much worse than that ! > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/723 - Release Date: 3/15/2007 > 11:27 AM > ------- > u2-users mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/723 - Release Date: 3/15/2007 11:27 AM -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/723 - Release Date: 3/15/2007 11:27 AM ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
