On 11 Oct 2009, at 18:15, Ann Barcomb wrote:
I think the conclusion is that there are many different forms of
addressing,
and most software doesn't get it right. Heck, many US webforms can't
even handle anything other than a US zipcode for the postcode section.
That's fairly typical. There's an appalling lack of information out
there on how to multinationally handle addresses and postcodes. All I
know about US zipcodes, i learned on wikipedia.
For one site I'm developing right now, it would be advantageous to be
able to locate a customer by a country name and zip/postal code. In
the UK I can do that if I purchase the Postzon data from royal mail.
In the US, I gather you need an extended zipcode to get that kind of
resolution, and in other countries, you just can't have that at all.
If there's some sort of information out there to educate people about
how to deal with these problems (myself included), more people might
do it.
--James
