[whatwg] Supporting more address levels in autocomplete

[Jürg Lehni]

I think it is dangerous to make any kind of assumption about valid postal addresses.

Here's a great list of all kinds of exceptions to rules that programmers tend to believe to be true:

(Don't we love rules?)

http://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addresses/

Jürg

On Feb 22, 2014, at 05:05 , Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Feb 2014, Kevin Marks wrote:
>> On 21 Feb 2014 17:03, "Ian Hickson" <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
>>>> Those names come from vcard - if adding a new one, consider how to 
>>>> model it in vcard too. Note that UK addresses can have this too - eg 
>>>> 3 high street, Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex, UK
>>> 
>>> That's actually a bogus UK address. I'm not sure exactly which town 
>>> you meant that to be in, but official UK addresses never have more 
>>> than two "region" levels, and usually only one (the "post town"). The 
>>> only time they have two is when the post town has two streets with the 
>>> same name.
>> 
>> The real address, where I grew up,  was:
>> 2 Melbury Road, Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex, HA3 9RA
> 
> Today, the address of that building is:
> 
>   2 Melbury Rd
>   Harrow
>   HA3 9RA
> 
> 
>> Damn humans, not following specs. Actually UK addresses have a huge 
>> amount of leeway, as they are routed by postcode in the main (though I 
>> did receive a postcard addressed to "Kevin, Sidney, Cambridge" once).
> 
> The post office will deal with all kinds of stuff, sure. But Web forms 
> only have to accept the formal address format, which in the UK only ever 
> has a street, a locality (sometimes), a post town, and a post code.
> 
> -- 
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'