RE: Converting names & street names

The only reason we have a mixed-case routine is because we send out letters
to customers on occasion. And some of those customer names and addresses are
from a vendor (which gives us the information all in UPPERCASE), or from
legacy systems which we have converted (also in uppercase). Of course, when
we enter stuff, we use CHECK(LC) on the DDS (except for the state
abbreviation and the middle initial).

Francis Lapeyre
IS Dept. Programmer/Analyst
Stewart Enterprises, Inc.
E-mail: flapeyre@xxxxxxxx 

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Darrell A Martin
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:02 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Converting names & street names

Hi:

The problem with any programmatic approach to capitalization rules in 
names is, for a very long time, since well before the advent of computers, 
capitalization has been regarded by many as a significant differentiator. 
Somebody cares, or used to care, that it is:

   van der Molen    not     VanDerMolen or Van Der Molen or Vander Molen 
or vander Molen
   dBASE            not     Dbase or DBASE or dBase
   Microsoft        not     MicroSoft or Micro$oft (sorry)
   O'Donnell        not     Odonnell or O'donnell
   Series i         not     Series I
   KiTtY eMpOrIuM   not     ... something that you can read

   anything in Klingon written using the Roman alphabet (sorry again)

And of course when the names are of persons, there will usually be 
somebody else (often a cousin!) who wants it the other way. The reasons 
are irrelevant when it is a person's or business' name. If it is a 
customer, you just have to care to get it right; and that means forget 
rules. Genealogy programmers can't figure it out, and a lot have tried -- 
you aren't going to succeed, either. Not because of lack of skill, but 
because the only dependable rule is, "It is what I say it is." That means 
that a human being needs to check the data after it is input, against the 
information supplied by the customer. Make it match. Get the customer's 
approval of the results (they will often be impressed that it matters to 
you).

It should be noted that in many genealogical contexts, use of all caps for 
surnames (but not given, middle, or baptismal names) is either encouraged 
or enforced. In a different vein, RootsWeb.com's mailing list names are 
all case-insensitive, and usually displayed as all caps. Apostrophes are 
not used. But everyone recognizes these limitations as shortcomings of 
computer systems, not a desirable outcome. 

Darrell

Darrell A. Martin  -  630-754-2187
Manager, Computer Operations
dmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 08/30/2006 04:52:31 PM:

Another reason to proper case the names etc is that it is much easier to
uppercase them when needed than to try to make them mixed case when
needed.

hth

Dave B

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