Re: [idn] Reality Check

[John C Klensin <klensin@psg.com>]

--On Sunday, 15 July, 2001 22:35 -0500 "Eric A. Hall"
<ehall@ehsco.com> wrote:

> As an aside, it is possible to upgrade many of the legacy
> protocols to UTF-8 without actually changing the protocol
> semantics, simply by using out-of-band negotation features.
> Finger, Echo, Gopher, etc., all of them could be upgraded. Not
> by this WG of course, but the work that this WG performs will
> dictate how that work eventually happens.
> 
> For example, if there's an out-of-band negotiation for "use
> UTF-8" that is glued onto finger, then the output can be
> internationalized, but the query inputs will also need to be
> internationalized for maximum functionality. This will include
> IDNs (with Finger in particular).

Eric,

Could you elaborate on what you propose to do with "out of band
negotiation" in these cases.  I can certainly understand a
protocol in which you call me, ask if my server is upgraded, and
then put it on a list, but such things traditionally have lousy
scaling and long-term properties.  It is difficult for me to
imagine how you would add anything out of band to finger, whois,
or other "one connection, one exchange" protoocols.  What did you
have in mind?

    john