Re: [idn] Reality Check

["Adam M. Costello" <amc@cs.berkeley.edu>]

Edmon <edmon@neteka.com> wrote:

> If you think that a UTF8 resolver interface is helpful, why then do we
> not go one step further to layout a plan for UTF8 to be used on the
> dns as well?  How would the wait benefit us?

We cannot develop standards at infinite speed.  If we worry about the
less urgent problems now, we distract ourselves away from the more
urgent problems, and thus delay the more urgent solutions.

The priorities are (in my estimation):

ACE & nameprep: essential
UTF-8 resolver: helpful
UTF-8 in DNS:   slightly helpful, maybe

Applications can start using IDNs as soon as ACE and nameprep are
finalized, and not a moment sooner.  A UTF-8 resolver interface might
encourage more applications to start supporting IDNs, because it will
make it easier.  A UTF-8 DNS extension will do very little, if anything,
for applications; it will make DNS servers and resolvers more complex
in the short term (when they support both UTF-8 and ACE) and simpler in
the long term (if ACE can someday be deprecated).  This is why I see no
urgency in developing a DNS extension.

"Eric A. Hall" <ehall@ehsco.com> wrote:

> The costs for embedding and managing encrypted domain names in
> protocols is obviously greater than the costs for embedding and
> managing UTF8 domain names.

If a protocol has the option of using only UTF-8 and not ACE (a new
application protocol would have this option, for example), then yes
that is obviously simpler.  But DNS does not have this option--it must
support ACE, at least in the short term.  It therefore has a choice
between ACE-only or ACE-plus-UTF-8.  Obviously, ACE-only is simpler
(but ACE-plus-UTF-8 is still an option that could be chosen for other
reasons).

> [ACE] is necessary for legacy support.  It is not necessary for moving
> forward, and will actively interfere with progress.

Huh?  Backward compatibility is most needed at the beginning, and the
need for it only decreases over time.  It is indeed necessary for moving
forward.  People are rarely willing to embrace a new thing if it causes
their existing stuff to stop working.

AMC