Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad From: brad@looking.UUCP Newsgroups: can.general Subject: Re: The Canadian Domain: Introduction to CA Message-ID: <1167@looking.UUCP> Date: Thu, 26-Nov-87 23:48:01 EST Article-I.D.: looking.1167 Posted: Thu Nov 26 23:48:01 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 17:02:00 EST References: <1987Nov23.095020.13055@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) Distribution: can Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Lines: 45 In article <1987Nov26.160644.10193@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> rayan@ai.toronto.edu (Rayan Zachariassen) writes: >In article <1165@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes: > >The problem in this case is that there is no mechanism >to do this kind of aliasing in a global fashion, or even within a single >network. Right. Naming for memorizability and understandability should be the global function. Naming for quick typing should be the local function. Thus the global network names should be the human place names. (My real beef here starts with "Ca" which is far inferior to "Canada". Now if I want international mail I will have to look up cryptic two letter country codes. I would gladly pay a few extra keystrokes for understandable international mail) >there was no good consistent scheme >using unabbreviated names (or do people really want PrinceEdwardIsland, >NorthWestTerritories, BritishColumbia, etc., like Ontario et al?). The same >argument was the reason for not abbreviating municipality names (no consistent >sensible way of doing it). >rayan The true name should be the most readable name. "BC" and "PEI" would be perfectly acceptable official alternate names, although the long names like British_Columbia should also exist. The easiest answer to satisfy both drives is to supply both. For the provinces it's hardly a major burden. (Far less typing than this debate) But the municipalities show up my point. People from far away won't know whatever abbreviations local municipalities have. This place calls itself "kw", and in T.O. they think of the area as "metro". Do they know this in Boise? Another example is the phone company. Because of keyboard limitations, they use "area codes", which you only remember for major places after lots of use. For the rest, you have to look on a map. To call somebody you don't know requires looking up a code in a book, or calling a directory service. A nicely designed naming scheme would make your intuitive first guess of a person's address the *right* guess. Can you imagine this for phone numbers? -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473