Subject: RE: Numeric currency codes (again?)

From: "Smith, Chris " <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 09:27:56 -0400

I concur with David on this.

I realize that this was (supposedly) resolved, but if it's
going to come up again, then I'll reiterate some of the
earlier points again.

This is a key interoperability issue for IOTP. Having both
numeric and alpha requires all roles to understand both AND
to understand how to convert from one to the other. I believe
this would also require that all roles and their supporting
implementations deal with currency updates, if only so that
client side wallets can report a currency to the local user.
This is a needless burden - go with alpha.

Alpha is, in my opinion, highly preferred. It can be used 
as-is to display to the client the currency in question.
The inclusion of the country code means that the user has
a better chance of understanding a currency code the software
doesn't recognize. If you use numerics and the user doesn't
know the EXACT number, they will not have any idea of the
actual value of a transaction.

Alpha is in much wider use from the consumer perspective - 
the 3 digit alpha codes are used on money exchange boards
everywhere to indicate exchange rates, while the numerics
are always hidden from view.

------------------------------------------------------------
 Chris Smith                                +1.416.348.6090
 Royal Bank                       [email-masked]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: July 27, 1999 10:40 PM
> To: [email-masked]; [email-masked]
> Subject: Numeric currency codes
> 
> 
> Yoshiaki asks ...
> 
> > 7.7.4 Currency Amount Element
> > Could you register "ISO4217-N" on IANA also because this is used in
> > the SMILE Project?
> > 
> I'm wondering why since:
> *	we debated at some length earlier this year whether to 
> go for alpha
> or numeric and concluded that alpha was to be preferred
> *	having just one type of code makes it easier to develop clients
> since there is no need to support (and keep up to date) both types
> *	since there is a one-to-one correspondence between the 
> alpha and the
> numeric you can always map between the two
> 
> ... but on the other hand if there's a good reason ... 
> Yoshiaki, can  you
> explain?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> David
> 
> Mondex International
> Email: [email-masked]
> 
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