5 ms·

I knew names were hard but now am convinced they are diabolical. The only safe solution seems to be to store every name as an alphanumeric blob and forget about

I knew names were hard but now am convinced they are diabolical. The only safe solution seems to be to store every name as an alphanumeric blob and forget about parsing altogether.

blattimwind 8y ago
Bingo.
masklinn 8y ago
> I knew names were hard but now am convinced they are diabolical. That's a pretty common theme of more or less any datapoint evolved through human cultural history, because you're dealing with divergent cultures and cultural mores. > The only safe solution seems to be to store every name as an alphanumeric blob and forget about parsing altogether. That is absolutely the recommendation. Depending on your use case you may e.g. ask for a name and a "name of address" (possibly defaulting to the regular name) so you don't display "Hello, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso" on every screen or use that in every notification email or whatever.
contravariant 8y ago
If only there was a unique aplhanumeric blob representing a name.
- Piskvorrr 8y ago
  A name, or a person? The first one is a bit easier; person:name is, at the easiest, 1:n. But yeah, a name can have multiple representations, even before multiple languages come in (Peter/Cephas/Petros). (Pedantry: Jean-Claude van Damme doesn't fit into the alphanumeric requirement on two separate counts)
macintux 8y ago
As was pointed out elsewhere, it’s rare to have a system which doesn’t need to interact with other systems. If you’re running a travel agency, those names have to be sent to airlines, hotels, etc...and they won’t be expecting a blob of data.
logfromblammo 8y ago
Scalable vector graphic with animation capabilities, audio file, or both. An SVG file could render Prince's symbol, a series of ASL hand movements, or a regular old ASCII text string. Searching and sorting would be a real bitch, though.

I knew names were hard but now am convinced they are diabolical. The only safe solution seems to be to store every name as an alphanumeric blob and forget about parsing altogether.

blattimwind 8y ago

Bingo.

masklinn 8y ago

> I knew names were hard but now am convinced they are diabolical. That's a pretty common theme of more or less any datapoint evolved through human cultural history, because you're dealing with divergent cultures and cultural mores. > The only safe solution seems to be to store every name as an alphanumeric blob and forget about parsing altogether. That is absolutely the recommendation. Depending on your use case you may e.g. ask for a name and a "name of address" (possibly defaulting to the regular name) so you don't display "Hello, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso" on every screen or use that in every notification email or whatever.

contravariant 8y ago

If only there was a unique aplhanumeric blob representing a name.

Piskvorrr 8y ago
A name, or a person? The first one is a bit easier; person:name is, at the easiest, 1:n. But yeah, a name can have multiple representations, even before multiple languages come in (Peter/Cephas/Petros). (Pedantry: Jean-Claude van Damme doesn't fit into the alphanumeric requirement on two separate counts)

macintux 8y ago

As was pointed out elsewhere, it’s rare to have a system which doesn’t need to interact with other systems. If you’re running a travel agency, those names have to be sent to airlines, hotels, etc...and they won’t be expecting a blob of data.

logfromblammo 8y ago

Scalable vector graphic with animation capabilities, audio file, or both. An SVG file could render Prince's symbol, a series of ASL hand movements, or a regular old ASCII text string. Searching and sorting would be a real bitch, though.