CCK: How to automate insertion of comma-separated data from a text field with multiple values?

Hello,

I'm a newbie with Drupal and could not find an answer to the following problem in the forum nor the documentation, hence this post.

I'm trying to use CCK to provide a single text field with the capability of inserting multiple values, separated by commas, or semi-colons. E.g.: entering "Doe, John; Doe, Jane" in the input field, it would split values by the separator, then proceed to the correct insertion of data.

Let's say John Doe and Jane Doe are "authors" -- not users, and the input field is displayed at the creation of an "article".

First case: the value for the author already exists in the database

The newly created article references the author by its field id.

Second case: the author is unknown

Before creating the article, a new author entry is created, then the correct reference is added to the article.

This type of field would be better used with an autocomplete field, a bit like del.icio.us tags, but with a different separator (not space).

I ignore if the solution to this requires a custom CCK development, or if it can be done using existing stuff, but I hope this thread will be useful.