The common desire for "user-friendly"
names seems to cover a number of
aspects. Can a human user, given
a name,
- Imagine what sort of a thing it
refers to?
- Write it down on an envelope and
type it back in later correctly?
- Remember it?
- Pass it over the telephone, or in
an electronic mail message, without
misunderstanding?
Some systems do not require any of
these things, but many systems have
found that in real life, these properties
make life a lot easier, especially
when things go wrong -- when you
are trying to find out, over the
telephone, why a given document is
not accessible, for example.
The solution to parts of these requirements
is a limitation in the character
set, or a defined way of representing
the character set or binary stream
in a printable fashion.
(up, on to descriptions)
Tim BL