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- From: riks@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Rik Fischer Smoody)
- Newsgroups: comp.object
- Subject: Full names, please
- Message-ID: <41410@ogicse.ogi.edu>
- Date: 15 Aug 92 00:23:51 GMT
- Article-I.D.: ogicse.41410
- Sender: riks@ogicse.ogi.edu
- Distribution: world
- Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR
- Lines: 79
-
- This is inspired by O.'s nice posting
- References to all ECOOP and OOPSLA proceedings, 1986-1992
- Thank you for the effort, and here's a suggestion for improvement
- aimed at many of us.
-
- We are workers in the information industry, and yet many of us
- systematically commit an act that is nothing short of data corruption.
- I refer to the troublesome habit of corrupting the names of the
- authors of papers in citations and bibliographies.
-
- The authors' names should be cited as they appear on the paper itself.
- Do not shorten names to initials unless the author has done so.
-
- Many years ago, data storage space was expensive. But then, word processors
- were few, and people actually *typed* their papers. The effort of typing
- first names was too much for harried department secretaries. But now we
- have tools for storing the reference on our databases. The human effort
- involved in selecting a reference is independent of the length of its
- contents. The cost of the extra data is tiny.
-
- Some of our colleagues are perhaps better known by first name: Adele, Balaji.
- Some people use their middle names prominently and the initialization
- process confuses their identity. L. Deutsch: Larry? Louise? Oh, Peter!
- Some have common last names: Johnson, Cook, Smith, Tanaka, Kinoshita.
- I know more than one R.Johnson and more than one K.Tanaka.
- Some of us are lucky. My surname is rare enough that I am probably the
- only one to write papers in my field. But outside of Scandinavia, my first
- name would do almost as well. There are certainly colleagues who
- have forgotten my last name.
- Why should we let an obsolete computer front-end cause us any confusion?
-
- I have heard the suggestion that initials avoid sexual bias. This may be
- true, but the decision to hide some aspect of their background should
- be left entirely to the author.
- If George Elliot feels compelled to publish her novels under an assumed name,
- that is her perogotive (sp?). We should strive to eliminate the bias
- without trying to eliminate the wonderful gender differences.
- If Adele Goldberg is not embarassed by her femininity, who are we to complain?
- Does the International Tennis Journal attribute articles to M.N.
- because either of "Martina" and "Navratilova" implies feminine gender?
- Do you question the masculinity of Yasuhiko YOKOTE?
- ("Haruko", "Hanako", "Rumiko", "Yuko" and others ending in "-ko" are
- Japanese girls names.)
- Do you know for sure if Kamal, Sanja, Terry, Chris, Pratha, or Jamie
- imply gender?
- Are you certain how much of a name is the SURNAME?
- I have seen mechanical forshortenings omit all but one letter of a
- Japanese surname but leave the entire gender-exposing given name.
- Various cultures use names of various lengths written in different
- orders using various alphabets. There is beauty in the sheer variety.
- Computer systems should be made to do their best to transcribe without
- corrupting. (Single-alphabet computers is an entirely different issue.)
- Bibliographies are not appropriate pulpits for neutralizing and bleaching
- our collective culture.
-
- In some cultures people change their surnames for various reasons,
- such as when they get married or unmarried.
- Should we exacerbate this singularity in the databse by losing all but
- a single character of their previous identity?
-
- As we move away from paper as the storage medium of choice, it becomes
- more important to avoid losing data. One should be able to "grep" for
- papers by "Wilf" or "Rebecca" and get satisfactory results.
- It cannot happen if the data isn't there.
-
- You can call me Rik Fischer Smoody, but if that's too long
- you can call me Rik F. Smoody
- or you can call me Rik F Smoody
- or you can call me Rik Smoody
- or you can call me Rik S
- or you can call me RikS
- or you can call me Rik
- but don't call me R.
-
- Rik Fischer Smoody
- smOOdynamics Systems Made Outa Objects
- 2400 NE 25th, Suite 800
- Portland, OR 97212
- 503-249-8300 riks@cse.ogi.edu
-