Re: Make peg.el a built-in library?

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> <tomas@tuxteam.de> writes:
>
>> On Tue, Nov 08, 2022 at 08:10:55AM -0800, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>>> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>>> 
>>> >> And that's about the only hint you get. I was trying to parse a
>>> >> multiword name like
>>> >>
>>> >> Eric Edwin Abrahamsen
>>> >
>>> > Side note: the division between "given name" a "family name" is not
>>> > a universal property [...]
>>
>>> Oh, I've gone down all the rabbit holes...
>>
>> ;-D
>>
>> And this all because a small bunch of PEGs..,
>
> Oh the rabbit holes started as soon as I started EBDB! Personal
> information is complicated -- I won't claim it's as bad as timezones and
> calendars, but it's pretty messy...

Yes, a definite mine field. I worked in the identity management space
for a few years and this was a constant challenge. As Stefan noted,
there is nothing intrinsic about the name which tells you what case the
letters should have, the relationship between first/last name, cultural
differences  - some locales don't have anything which corresponds to
first/last and some vary the order depending on the context or have
different names depending on the level of perceived formality etc. To
make it even more difficult, oddly enough, names are very personal and
people get upset when you get it wrong. Then you can add in things like
title e.g. Mr, Mrs, Ms etc and you open the whole gender identity issue.

Our general solution at the time was two fold

- As far as possible, allow the user to specify how they wanted to be
  addressed or how their name was to be displayed 'on-line'. This may
  require formal and informal versions

- Train/educate staff and developers to avoid unnecessary use of names,
  title etc.

We also tried to avoid using culturally bias terms like 'surname' or
even 'first name' 'last name' as this simply doesn't map to anything
consistent for some locations.

Where I found the wheels often dropped off was when the legal department
got involved. My experience was they were the least culturally aware
area in the organisation. Not only did they often fail to recognise
external cultural differences, they were also slow to acknowledge
internal cultural evolution.