[98] in Moira
Re: Capitalization in names
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jerome H Saltzer)
Tue May 1 16:32:13 1990
Date: Tue, 1 May 90 16:31:33 EDT
From: Jerome H Saltzer <Saltzer@MIT.EDU>
To: mar@MIT.EDU
Cc: bug-moira@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Mark Rosenstein's message of Tue, 1 May 90 16:01:58 -0400 <9005012001.AA19252@Toto.MIT.EDU>
> The programs which are used to add people to Moira from the registrar
> and personel tapes use a simple algorithm to turn the all uppercase
> names we receive into what is often, but not always, the correct
> capitalization. If you add someone to the database by hand, be sure
> that you follow the same technique or register (which also uses this
> algorithm) will fail for them.
Given that the Registrar hands over names in all caps and that it is
probably more humane to display in upper + lower case, the
transformation rule seems as reasonable as any. But is there a good
argument why Moira should not be doing case-insensitive comparisons at
lookup time?
If it is because the underlying DB system doesn't provide
case-insensitive comparison semantics, there is a solution, which
unfortunately takes up some space and requires a DB rebuild: store
the name twice, once in display form and once in comparison form; the
comparison form would be the name, from whatever source, forced to
all-upper-case. Storing the name in both forms also permits an
administrator to respond to a request from the beleagered Mr. McElheny
that his name be displayed in a way that encourages a greater
likelihood of correct pronunciation.
Jerry
