[aprssig] spaces in object names (meaning)

[Randy Love]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Steve Dimse<steve at dimse.com> wrote:
>
> That is not the way someone participating in a tactical situation views
> things. He wants to know the current situation. If you have an object named
> "LEAD" and a station named "LEAD" both on the map, even if they are
> identified as an object and a station, there is confusion. If there is an
> object called "RESCUE 1" and another called "RESCUE  1", there is confusion.
> Confusion is bad.
>

Yes, but using your example here, if we collapse the 2 embedded spaces
in "RESCUE  1" to make it "RESCUE 1", haven't we just LOST an
object/station that may have been the proper information because the
two are exactly the same after modification, but in reality are
different?

Misinformation is much more dangerous that conflicting information. I
understand what you are saying here about "making sure to make sure"
the object is the 'object'. But we shouldn't do that by modification
of what is being received or what a user is entering to send. Notice I
said *modification* of data, which is what I believe you are
suggesting for all future clients/parsers/gateways should do.

I'll buy your recommendation that an object shouldn't contain more
than one consecutive embedded space, for reasons of clarity, but I
don't buy that that should be forced by parsers, gateways, or clients
after the fact *when the user has entered multiple embedded spaces*.
We should keep and process what the user has transmitted.

Randy
WF5X