telephoneNumber does not allow * (ITS#2855)

[quanah@stanford.edu]

Full_Name: Quanah Gibson-Mount
Version: 2.1.23
OS: Solaris 8
URL: ftp://ftp.openldap.org/incoming/
Submission from: (NULL) (171.66.182.82)


A nagging question we've run into here @ Stanford is why won't OpenLDAP let us
put in *'s for extentions numbers?  It seems to me this is a perfectly valid,
dialable character.  However, OpenLDAP won't take it.

I tracked down the spec to:
<http://www.nmedia.net/docs/ccitt/1988/2_2/2_2_02.html#Recommendation%20E.123>

In reading Annex A (right below here:
<http://www.nmedia.net/docs/ccitt/1988/2_2/2_2_02.html#7%20Facsimile%20number%20notation>)
it describes the properties of dialable numbers:

The properties of diallable symbols should be:

A.1 Distinct from other diallable symbols

(check)

A.1.1 The symbols should be visually distinct in their designated form as well
as in typewritten, handwritten, or printed form, including variations which
might occur in each.

(check)

A.1.2 The symbols should be aurally distinct in naming them in at least the
official languages of the ITU.

(Looking at ISO 656, I would say yes)

A.2 Widely known name

The name of the symbol should be as widely known as possible and be constant
over as wide a range of population as possible.

(ISO 646 again)

A.3
  Reproducible

The symbol should be easily reproducible in handwritten and typewritten form.

(check) 

A.4
  CCITT-ISO compatible

The symbol should be one which is given as a member of the CCITT Alphabet No. 5
and the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard code for
information interchange.

This is ISO 646, which can be found here
<http://www.terena.nl/library/multiling/euroml/section04.html>

and definately contains "*".

A.5 Made up of a single character

The symbol should not be composed of more than one individually valid symbol;
nor should more than one key operation on a typewriter, for example, be required
to produce it.

(check)

A.6
  Abstract

The symbol should not already have intrinsic meaning resulting from other
specialized usage.
 
(check?)

A.7
  Immediately recognizable as a diallable character

The symbol should not be one which is used for procedural or information
purposes.
 (check)

Given all of this, I would say it is a bug that OpenLDAP does not allow *'s to
be put into the telephoneNumber attribute.  But maybe I'm misunderstanding the
spec's. :)

--Quanah