[30] in Moira
[Dan Geer: chfn / finger information generally]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Basch)
Sat Jan 27 22:39:10 1990
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 90 22:38:44 -0500
To: bug-moira@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: quality@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
From: Richard Basch <probe@MIT.EDU>
------- Forwarded Message
From: geer@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 10:47:59 -0500
To: bugs@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: chfn / finger information generally
Cc: athena-ws@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
this is just a comment that the database quality
of what chfn lets you do is long since functionally
obsolete and should be replaced. a coordinated
facility with the phone book, registrar, and a
follow on to ``finger'' is the need. merely
patching the finger protocol is a loser.
indicative examples:
you cannot put a comma in one's full name (what about
suffixes to one's name - like a degree or a ``Jr.''
or the like)
the office address stuff, e.g. the magic meaning of the
trailing ``M'', is silly
office telephones are requested with ``(Ex: 3-1300)'' as
a model - when, in fact, the correct entry a user
would make for the above is ``1300''
the MIT department section is truncated (silently) at
twelve characters, so that (example!) ``Project
Athena'' becomes ``Project Athe'' despite the
fact that the user interfact encourages entries
``(Exs: 9, Biology, Information Services'' that
cannot fit like that [and note the lack of a
closing parenthesis in the above...]
the home address example is instructive for a student at
U Cal Berkeley, not MIT: ``(Ex: Atkinson 304)''
much of the information, and other information that it
might be useful to have, should be acl protected
and under the user's control. my home phone,
for immediate example, is something i would be
happy to have available to staff if i could also
exclude the hoi polloi.
and no discussion of ``finger'' would be complete
without acknowledging one's (relatively useless)
desire to recall the events of 88 november and
finger's role in same...
--dan
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