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Classic: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...

nojs 2y ago
> People’s names are all mapped in Unicode code points Curious how the author recommends we avoid this one
- zinekeller 2y ago
  Actually, there is a case of this in China where (previously) both Unicode and the Chinese standard (GBK) was unable to encode Ma Cheng's (马𩧢) name. If you have Android, you might even see this in action (since that Noto still does not encode this one). Currently, the solution going forward is to restrict what characters are acceptable as names.
  - hinoki 2y ago
    Safari on iOS 18.1 doesn’t render the second character properly either. (Unless it’s a 口 :)
- decimalenough 2y ago
  There are lots of Chinese people whose last names use rare characters or variants that are not mapped in Unicode. Taiwan, which retains traditional characters and hasn't forced people to standardize as much as mainland China and Japan, is particularly notorious for this. There's also the whole Han unification debacle, where similar but not always identical characters used in Chinese/Japanese/Korean have been mushed together. Support for some Indic scripts also remains quite patchy: https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/i-can-text-you-a-pile-of-poo-but-i-cant-write-my-name https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/i-can-text-you-a-pile-of...
- numpad0 2y ago
  I'm guessing the solution is to forget Unicode sequences as an identifier, and assign a hashed integer account number instead. Treat Unicode as non-textual data format for human use only, like how account pictures are. I think many web systems for mainly CJK users do so.
jaggederest 2y ago
Similar documentation from the W3 https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names
vaylian 2y ago
This list should contain the case of "the name is not a keyword in your programming language" which is what this thread is about.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y ago
  It sort of does but there could be one more specific to this case: > 31. I can safely assume that this dictionary of bad words contains no people’s names in it. And I’m immediately reminded of that family I knew when I was a kid whose last name was Cummings. We also knew someone who went by their first and middle initials of BJ.

nojs 2y ago

> People’s names are all mapped in Unicode code points Curious how the author recommends we avoid this one

zinekeller 2y ago
Actually, there is a case of this in China where (previously) both Unicode and the Chinese standard (GBK) was unable to encode Ma Cheng's (马𩧢) name. If you have Android, you might even see this in action (since that Noto still does not encode this one). Currently, the solution going forward is to restrict what characters are acceptable as names.
- hinoki 2y ago
  Safari on iOS 18.1 doesn’t render the second character properly either. (Unless it’s a 口 :)
decimalenough 2y ago
There are lots of Chinese people whose last names use rare characters or variants that are not mapped in Unicode. Taiwan, which retains traditional characters and hasn't forced people to standardize as much as mainland China and Japan, is particularly notorious for this. There's also the whole Han unification debacle, where similar but not always identical characters used in Chinese/Japanese/Korean have been mushed together. Support for some Indic scripts also remains quite patchy: https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/i-can-text-you-a-pile-of-poo-but-i-cant-write-my-name https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/i-can-text-you-a-pile-of...
numpad0 2y ago
I'm guessing the solution is to forget Unicode sequences as an identifier, and assign a hashed integer account number instead. Treat Unicode as non-textual data format for human use only, like how account pictures are. I think many web systems for mainly CJK users do so.

jaggederest 2y ago

Similar documentation from the W3 https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names

vaylian 2y ago

This list should contain the case of "the name is not a keyword in your programming language" which is what this thread is about.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y ago
It sort of does but there could be one more specific to this case: > 31. I can safely assume that this dictionary of bad words contains no people’s names in it. And I’m immediately reminded of that family I knew when I was a kid whose last name was Cummings. We also knew someone who went by their first and middle initials of BJ.