canpolat@programming.dev to Programming@programming.devEnglish · edit-211 months agoFalsehoods Programmers Believe About Nameswww.kalzumeus.comexternal-linkmessage-square10fedilinkarrow-up11
arrow-up11external-linkFalsehoods Programmers Believe About Nameswww.kalzumeus.comcanpolat@programming.dev to Programming@programming.devEnglish · edit-211 months agomessage-square10fedilink
minus-squareCorngood@lemmy.mllinkfedilinkarrow-up1·11 months agoIt’s all reasonable stuff except maybe: People’s names are all mapped in Unicode code points. I don’t see how you could avoid this this in software that needs to ask the user their name. I think it’s definitely a good idea to avoid using names wherever possible, and definitely don’t try to do anything clever with them. When necessary, software can just be clear: “in unicode, what should I call you?” "in unicode, who is making this credit card transaction?’
minus-squareSemi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.sociallinkfedilinkarrow-up1·11 months agoUsers: “I don’t speak unicode”
minus-squareCorngood@lemmy.mllinkfedilinkarrow-up1·11 months agoHaha, yeah, I didn’t mean literally telling them that. More like giving them a text field that can only contain unicode characters, which is pretty standard.
It’s all reasonable stuff except maybe:
I don’t see how you could avoid this this in software that needs to ask the user their name.
I think it’s definitely a good idea to avoid using names wherever possible, and definitely don’t try to do anything clever with them.
When necessary, software can just be clear:
Users: “I don’t speak unicode”
Haha, yeah, I didn’t mean literally telling them that. More like giving them a text field that can only contain unicode characters, which is pretty standard.