[idn] Extending gethostbyname()

["D. J. Bernstein" <djb@cr.yp.to>]

Mark.Andrews@nominum.com writes:
> Yes we are talking here about extending RFC 952, however
> that does not imply that it is necessarily safe to extend
> gethostbyname().  The safest thing to do is to specify a
> new API which is defined to accept IHN and return IHN's.

Perhaps you have forgotten that RFC 952 is obsolete. RFC 1123 extended
the host name syntax twelve years ago.

The gethostbyname() maintainers could have insisted that gethostbyname()
be used only for the old syntax. They could have introduced an idiotic
new gethostbyextendedname() function. They could have forced programs to
switch from gethostbyname() to gethostbyextendedname() to support the
new syntax.

In short, they could have changed a simple syntax extension into a
compatibility disaster. But they didn't.

---Dan