Hi there! On Thu, 03 Feb 2011 05:31:50 +0100, Roland Winkler wrote: > On Wed Feb 2 2011 Johnny wrote: >> This is a good idea; the current BBDB handling seems very >> US-centered. For one, I think "Postal code" should replace the American >> term "Zip code" as default naming, as this seems to be the generic >> term. > > This becomes yet more complicated. I vaguely remember that some > other english-speaking countries use yet different names instead of > "zip code" and "postal code", but I forgot where it was and what > their alternative terminology was...
Well, I would say that by default we should use the same term used by the UPU, which is "Postcode" [1], albeit quite surprisingly the main article on Wikipedia is referred as "Postal Code": <http://www.upu.int/en/resources/postcodes/about-postcodes.html> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcode> FWIW, here a small survey on some websites: easyJet.com > Postcode/Zip Amazon.com > ZIP eBay.it > CAP (Italian for 'Postal Code') PayPal.com > Postal Code (localized, CH-...) FSF.org > ZIP/Postal Code FSFE.org > Post Code >> > If I remember correctly, Europe introduced zip codes like CH-8052, >> > NL-2300RA, and SE-132 54 >> I guess this stems from ISO-3166? It does seem appealing to use this >> standard, but it could take some effort to implement; e.g. would a >> lookup table be necessary? > > I am impressed what is covered by some ISO-xyz! Yet I guess what > matters in the end is what people actually like to use in real life... I do not think there is even a *used* standard within a single country, at least here in Switzerland I saw different layouts sometime according to where the sender lives (French/German/Italian part). And none of the examples at the UPU website uses this ISO-3166 supposed standard: <http://www.upu.int/en/activities/addressing/postal-addressing-systems-in-member-countries.html> >> > I am not yet sure what is the best way how to combine a look-up table >> > based on country names with a zip-based scheme. >> Wikipedia lists a few formattings of postal codes; however this is not >> defined in ISO-3166. Maybe there's some other source for this though... > > Well, I want to ask: Is the scheme I proposed general enough to make > most people happy? Or is it necessary to have something yet more > complicated (and possibly less user-friendly? I wouldn't like that > either...) Your proposed scheme is enough customizable, so the situation will be improved anyway WRT the actual US/EU dichotomy ;-) Thx, bye, Gismo / Luca
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