RE: [idn] IDNs in email message bodies

["Brian W. Spolarich" <briansp@walid.com>]

| I just looked at the IDNs-in-MUAs talk (thanks to StarOffice).  I agree
| with it regarding the mail headers, but I have doubts about performing
| ACE conversions in message bodies.

  The comments to this presentation were basically "Some good ideas, but
try again.  Too many layer violations."  

  Applications need to differentiate between IDNs in a resolution context 
from other contexts.  In the context of a message body or HTML document, 
for example, I would expect to see IDNs presented 'as is': ACE as ACE, and
native characters as native characters.  So for example users should be
able to do something like this in a web page:

  <A HREF="http://中國.com/";>中國.com</A>

  The browser (or some piece of software) in this context is going to have 
to process the domain name here before it gets sent to the resolver.  At
least that's the model I've been operating under. :-)

  The WG is going to have to provide very explicit guidelines here in
the specification so that implementors know exactly what to do.  There's
going to be a lot of confusion on this.

  -bws