Re: [idn] I fear I cannot use IDN in the next 10 years

[Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman@imc.org>]

At 9:00 AM +0200 10/4/01, Dan Oscarsson wrote:
>As all ACE-encoded names need to be decoded into native names when
>entering a system, why not use UTF-8 over the wire to support simpler
>handling of names?

For the same reasons people have been repeating on this list for the 
past year. UTF-8 is the "native" encoding for a very small number of 
people. Further, even for that very small number of people, UTF-8 is 
almost never the only encoding they have. Because of that, we need to 
assume that essentially all software that takes in or displays IDNs 
will have to do some conversion before putting the name parts on the 
wire. If we are going to require conversion, it is better to do that 
conversion to something that is already compatible with the current 
DNS protocol.

Updating all of the DNS servers in the world is an option, but not 
one that makes much sense.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium