Re: names for the "English" alphabet

["Cramer, Kim" <kcramer -at- NCSLINK -dot- COM>]

Amy E. Brown asked our opinion on:
In our software, user names must be entered in 7-bit ASCII characters.
To my understanding, this means: user names must be entered in letters
from the latin alphabet or arabic numerals.

Some folks want me to say "English letters".  The problem is, our
software (including the interface) is being translated into several
languages, and I have a feeling that French users would wonder why they
were confined to the "English" alphabet when their own (a/k/a latin)
alphabet would suffice.

Anyone got a more user-friendly suggestion?
<snip>

Amy -
Why not just say "You can use the following characters when entering
user names:"  then list the characters (upper, lower, and numerals).
This avoids having to give the alphabet a name and identifies the
characters that will work.  Just be sure the translators don't change
the list of acceptable characters!

*************
Kim Cramer
mailto:kcramer -at- ncslink -dot- com
Sr. Information Developer
NCS Education, Mesa AZ
*************


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