[Kolab-devel] RFC: "gender" field in contacts

[Bernhard Reiter]

Joon,
are you okay with the proposal to fix the <gender> element tag
in the format specification?

diff -u -u -0 -r1.16 contacts.sgml
--- contacts.sgml       16 Nov 2006 22:34:55 -0000      1.16
+++ contacts.sgml       15 Apr 2008 16:19:57 -0000
@@ -75,0 +76,3 @@
+<para>gender can be empty or is one of male or female.
+</para>
+

On Tuesday 01 April 2008 18:52, Bernhard Herzog wrote:
> CC to kolab-format at kolab.org because that's where this question should
> really be discussed.  A final decision should be made on that list.
>
> On Tuesday 01 April 2008 14:15, Thomas Jarosch wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 1. April 2008 11:48:04 Bernhard Herzog wrote:
> > > I think it would be better to use either single letters (m, f) or to
> > > spell it out (male, female).  Both are preferable because their meaning
> > > is reasonably obvious.  With integers you always have to consult the
> > > documentation to figure out what they mean.  To indicate an unspecified
> > > gender, leave out the gender element altogether or leave it empty.
> >
> > That's a good point. "male" and "female" is best as it's consistent
> > with the rest of the Kolab format using complete names
> > like the recurrence pattern types do.
>
> I've talked about this with Bernhard Reiter and Thomas Arendsen Hein.  They
> both prefer spelling out male or female, too.  An unspecified or unknown
> gender can be indicated by omitting the gender element altogether or by
> leaving it empty.
>
> Do we need other values?

The main questions for more values is:
Do we need to make a distinction between unknown and unspecified? 
As far as I can see: We do not need those two values and could wait
if a real use case pops up.

Bernhard


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