Re: [idn] Reality Check

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

Martin Duerst <duerst@w3.org> wrote:

> > What is supposed to happen when IDN-capable people send email to
> > mailing lists?  Are they supposed to use their non-IDN address if
> > there are any IDN-incapable subscribers?  How will they know?
>
> Assuming that the sender has some clue about how the address will
> show up at the other end, no sender will want ACE to show up.  If
> mail systems don't get some functionality that will automatically
> only use the ACE address if the other systems can display the actual
> characters, ACE will get very bad press. So there is no real argument
> here to favor ACE over UTF-8.

Suppose I have a Chinese email address and an ASCII email address, and
I want to send mail to a mailing list.  Let's compare what happens in a
world without ACE, versus a world with ACE:

In a world without ACE, if I send mail using my Chinese email address,
then all IDN-incapable subscribers will be completely unable to reply to
me.  No thanks, I'll use my ASCII address.  Looks like IDN is going to
have a hard time catching on in this world.

In a world with ACE, if I send mail using my Chinese email address,
everyone will be able to reply to me.  Some subscribers will be
IDN-capable and will see my Chinese address in its proper form, while
others will be IDN-incapable and will see the ACE.  If I use my ASCII
address things will be prettier for the IDN-incapable subscribers who
are familiar with ASCII letters, but less pretty for the IDN-capable
subscribers who are familiar with Chinese characters.  But since
everyone can reply to me in any case, I might prefer to reward the
IDN-capable folks and let the IDN-incapable folks see the ACE.  This way
I can encourage the IDN-incapable folks to upgrade without completely
cutting them off.  IDNs have an easier time catching on in this world.

AMC