RE: [idn] Re: stringprep and unassigned code points

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

At 9:15 PM -0800 10/29/01, Yves Arrouye wrote:
>I think that at the end of the day, while we agree that adding more code
>points to Unicode will break some applications that use a Nameprep released
>before the code points were assigned,

We don't agree here. Following the rules in stringprep, no 
application will be broken by adding new code points. We (or, more 
accurately, Patrik Fältström and Mark Davis) specifically designed it 
that way. Applications taking queries should look at characters that 
they think are unassigned and pass them in the query.

Nor will new code points "break" name servers. A name server that is 
told to store a name that has what it thinks is an unassigned code 
point will simply say "no". Nothing will break. In order to get it to 
say "yes", you update the table of unassigned characters to the 
newer, now-smaller table.

I heartily request that people read this section of the stringprep 
draft and, if you find places where we can make it clearer, by all 
means let me know soon.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium