Re: [idn] Why follow IDNA with UTF-8?

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

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

> The format of a master file needs to be agreed on.  This is required
> for DNS to operate properly.

Why?  Zone transfers use the regular binary DNS message format, not the
text master file format.  As far as I know, having a standard master
file format is not necessary for DNS to operate properly, but is a
convenience for DNS administrators because it allows them to switch to
a different server implementation without having to translate their
zone files.  Some server implementations (like BIND) support extensions
to the master file format (like $GENERATE), and DNS administrators who
use such extensions assume the risk that if they switch to a different
server implementation, those extensions might not work.  The same would
be true of an extension for supporting UTF-8.  The extension for UTF-8
might be sufficiently useful that it becomes a standard extension, like
$TTL added by RFC 2308.

AMC