Re: overloading cn= in the DIT

[Andrew Findlay <[e-mail]>]

>> Now how do I deal with people who do
>> search cn=<string> and find a bunch of DSA and MTA get returned?
>
>This is the problem with the ****** DUAs, not the standard. The

Absolutely correct. Hit the DUA designers to do the job right.
(I speak as one, and cower as I write :-)

There has been a raging flame-war in the UK lately about the existance
of animal names in the DIT. The same comments apply: DUAs should show
the user what they want *and nothing that would confuse them*.

>user should be asking (in an appropriate GUI way, of course :-)
>'search for a person with the name of George Michaelson'. Never,
>ever, 'search cn="George Michaelson"'.

This is exactly what the (later) Brunel DUAs do. Try `doog' (line
mode) or `xlu' (MIT X) or PC-pages (MS-windows/CONS). They all take
great care to show only `real' people when that is what the user is
expecting.

>(ps I should make an honourable mention of ITAXA, which at least
>looks at the object class of the returned entries _and_sorts_them_.

It is much better to specify the object class in the search. Then you
never have to process the irrelevant entries at all (and there might
be a lot...)

Andrew
-- 

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