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From: F/32 Eurydice on 18 Jun 2010 18:01 Falsehoods Programmers Believe about People's Names http://is.gd/cUEYe If only the author had suggested a way to fix these problems.
From: Richard Heathfield on 18 Jun 2010 18:30 F/32 Eurydice wrote: > Falsehoods Programmers Believe about People's Names > > http://is.gd/cUEYe > > If only the author had suggested a way to fix these problems. Easy. Step 1: define "name" in a practical way that you know you can implement. Step 2: get the definition signed off by the customer. Step 3: implement your definition. -- Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk> Email: -http://www. +rjh@ "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999 Sig line vacant - apply within
From: Ben Pfaff on 18 Jun 2010 18:35 "F/32 Eurydice" <f32eurydice(a)sbcglobal.net> writes: > Falsehoods Programmers Believe about People's Names I guess with a name like "F/32 Eurydice" you have a lot of interest in problems with unusual names. -- Ben Pfaff http://benpfaff.org
From: Richard Heathfield on 18 Jun 2010 19:39 Ben Pfaff wrote: > "F/32 Eurydice" <f32eurydice(a)sbcglobal.net> writes: >> Falsehoods Programmers Believe about People's Names > > I guess with a name like "F/32 Eurydice" you have a lot of > interest in problems with unusual names. Your name is mildly unusual. At least, you're the only Pfaff I've ever encountered, so it's unusual from my point of view. By a remarkable and most fortunate coincidence, however, I have no difficulty in remembering how to spell your name, because it's exactly the same as the celebrated URL <http://benpfaff.org>. -- Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk> Email: -http://www. +rjh@ "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999 Sig line vacant - apply within
From: Ben Pfaff on 18 Jun 2010 19:53
Richard Heathfield <rjh(a)see.sig.invalid> writes: > Ben Pfaff wrote: >> I guess with a name like "F/32 Eurydice" you have a lot of >> interest in problems with unusual names. > > Your name is mildly unusual. At least, you're the only Pfaff I've ever > encountered, so it's unusual from my point of view. I don't remember ever running into any other Heathfields either. My last name was very frustrating when I was young. It was just odd enough, and I was just sensitive enough to teasing, that I was teased about it a lot in school. Worse, though, my family pronounces Pfaff with an initial "p" ("paf"). That makes no sense at all, since every other word spelled with "pf" is pronounced with an "f" sound. So no one seeing it for the first time would ever pronounce it correctly, for very good reason. About the time I entered high school, I realized that there was an easy fix: change the way that I pronounce it. So from then on I have always pronounced my name with an initial "f" ("faf"). This confused people who knew me for a while, but it has been wonderful otherwise. It still causes confusion once in a while, because the rest of my family still says "paf", so that people sometimes wonder whether we are really related, but I live thousands of miles from the rest of my family so it's pretty uncommon. > By a remarkable and most fortunate coincidence, however, I have no > difficulty in remembering how to spell your name, because it's exactly > the same as the celebrated URL <http://benpfaff.org>. Actually, I was named after the website. (Didn't you know?) -- Ben Pfaff http://benpfaff.org |