Re: another lookup problem

[Geert Jan de Groot <]

On Fri, 19 Jul 1996 10:13:53 +0200 (MET DST)  David.Kessens@localhost wrote:
> > >>  Names likes this will be rejected in the next release of the updating
> > >>  code. Names should consist of at least two parts, not counting
> > >>  abbreviated parts/titles.
> > 
> > As I have mentioned in the past, there are people who have only one
> > name.  If you decide to do this, please make a compile or run-time
> > configuration option that will defeat this syntax check.
> 
> Don't worry. I heard already about your concerns. It is supported:
> 
> # NROFNAMES
> #
> # minimal number of components that a name should consist of
> 
> NROFNAMES 2

I'm not convinced that enforcing the name to exist of 2 words is
really going to solve the problem.

There are a couple of problems here:
1. People enter names in the database with an illegal format:
   	U. Schultz
	Miss Emma Peel
	Smith		(Joe Smith, but only the last name)
2. Namespace collisions, which are more likely the smaller and the
   more common the key is (I have not found somebody else with my name
   yet, but it is more likely that 'Smith' collides with something else)
   With the growth of the Internet, I believe that using people's names
   as (exclusive) search key is no longer sufficient.
3. In some areas of the world (India?), people *really* have only one name.
   Making the database resistent against these names doesn't help:
   I see no reason to lock them out from using other registries
   then the APNIC 'names fix' version.

Rather than locking out people from India, I believe that the correct
approach is to enforce people to use NIC handles. We have been migrating
to that for quite some time, and maybe now is the time to cut over.

We all know that NIC handles work quite well; there is already much
operational experience with this as it is used in day-to-day operation.
There may still be a couple of small open issues but most of them
have been dragging around for a long time and they will be resolved
much more quickly once NIC handles are enforced.

As to the 'illegal name' issue, I wonder if there are places where
the correct spelling of names allows a dot in the first word or the
last word (middle words are OK). This would allow cases like:
	David R. Conrad
but blocks cases like:
	Prof. Jones
	U. Schultz
This check isn't perfect, but is reasonable because it catches most
common mistakes, and the ones that are left are harmless.

My stuiver's worth,

Geert Jan