Re: [xml-dev] Off-topic: Re: [xml-dev] [OT] Re: [xml-dev] Lessons learned from the XML experiment

From: Uche Ogbuji <>
Date: 2013-11-17T16:26:43Z
ID: <CAPJCua1nUoQfg=okUEdQU18ehk_eucWw2Qrv8Hqbu0=>
Thread: Re: [xml-dev] Off-topic: Re: [xml-dev] [OT] Re: [xml-dev] Lessons learned from the XML experiment

On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 2:13 AM, Rick Jelliffe <[email protected]> wrote:

Information architects reading might be interested that here in Australia we are increasingly having to deal with people's names from our vibrant neighbour Indonesia, where people commonly have a single name only (e.g. Munali). It is not a family name, not a surname, and not a second name.

This causes some bother, because many local computer systems are designed to require two names.

It is certainly amazing how many information systems ignore the extraordinary richness and flexibility of personal names and addresses. Out of curiosity I went to see whether I'd covered this case in my old article on the topic, and found it's gone 404 (but still available via Wayback):

http://web.archive.org/web/20090207084056/http://ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-elemdes.html

I'm curious what the Docbook variant or TEI pattens might look like for your "Munali" example. I'm guessing in the latter case just

<persName type="complete">Munali</persName>

Of course I invented "complete," as permitted by the spec

"[type attribute] characterizes the element in some sense, using any convenient classification scheme or typology."

But perhaps there is a more standardized form for this.

Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net
Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com

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