Re: [idn] rederivation of an IDN architecture

["D. J. Bernstein" <djb@cr.yp.to>]

Adam M. Costello writes:
> Conjecture 1:  Many people will be reluctant to create domains using
> additional characters if those domains would be inaccessible to
> preexisting protocols, interfaces, software, etc.

No. All that people care about is whether the software works. Protocols,
interfaces, and so on are relevant only to the extent that they help the
software work. Also, people don't care about ``preexisting'' software
unless that software is still in use.

> Goal 1 (motivated by facts 1-3 and conjecture 1):  Allow domain names to
> contain additional characters, while still allowing all domains to be
> referred to by all preexisting protocols, interfaces, software, etc.

Here you've lost sight of the goal of actually DISPLAYING THE NAMES
PROPERLY. This is the whole point of internationalized domain names!

ACE IDNs don't work today, and they aren't going to work in the
foreseeable future. They can, however, be ``referred to.'' Given these
facts, and given your confusion over the basic goal, it's entirely
unsurprising that you end up advocating ACE IDNs.

---Dan