Re: [idn] hostname history hell

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

--On Tuesday, 20 November, 2001 13:34 -0600 "Eric A. Hall"
<ehall@ehsco.com> wrote:

> Minimum 1 alpha character, maximum 48 alphanumeric chars,
> first char alpha (ergo not hyphen), last char alphanumeric.
> The exclusion of beginning and ending hyphens had to do with
> syntax of multi-part service-specific names as is more clear
> later.

It was also noted at the time that hyphen was a common argument
("qualifier") introducer in some command languages and a common
introducer for negative numbers in input strings in others, and
hence better avoided.

   john