Re: [idn] Debunking the ACE myth

[Dave Crocker <dhc@dcrocker.net>]

At 11:46 PM 7/17/2001, D. J. Bernstein wrote:
>The ACE myth is that we can safely start using ACE IDNs before all the
>browsers, mail clients, etc. have been modified.
>...
>I see a mailto URL in my browser. I don't like the browser's built-in
>mailer, and changing the mailto handler is inconvenient, so I simply
>copy-and-paste the address into my mail client. The address looks fine.
>I type the message and send it. (This is a very common situation.)

The premise behind transition approaches that use special encoding, on top 
of an existing infrastructure that is unmodified, is that arbitrary pairs 
of participants can safely use the scheme, without waiting for 
infrastructure changes. The comparison, then, is against a scheme that 
requires deeper changes, to the infrastructure.

In this case, the question is about changes to the DNS server 
infrastructure.  UTF8 requires changes to them.  ACE does not.

Hence ACE can become usable far quicker than a raw binary approach.

This of course does not mean that ACE will work for everyone immediately. 
But, then, neither scheme will cause me to be able to type or read kanji.

On the other hand, if I DID understand kanji, then someone with a domain 
name that uses that character set would be accessible to me, subject only 
to my upgrading my own system.  Neither they nor I would have to wait for 
DNS server infrastructure upgrades.

With UTF-8, we would have to wait on the server operators to make the upgrade.

d/


----------
Dave Crocker  <mailto:dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking  <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel +1.408.246.8253;  fax +1.408.273.6464