Re: [idn] IDN WG Last Call: draft-ietf-idn-idna-06.txt

[Dan Oscarsson <Dan.Oscarsson@trab.se>]

Ben wrote:

>> The text in the IDNA draft may be interpreted as you must use ACE
>> encoded
>> names in URLs inside a HTML-document. Just forget it. It must be
>> possible
>> to use the character set of the context of the HTML document.
>>People will not write ACE!
>
>I can not see the problem you are trying to point out and I think a
>specific example will help me better understand.  Can you explain why
>the following would cause problems?
>
><p><a href=http://zq--fiq228c.com><b><font
>color="#FFFFFF">中æ-?.com</font></b></a></p>
>

That will not cause problems except that the person writing
the HTML page may not know the ACE form and will write:
<p><a href=http://中æ-?.com><b><font
color="#FFFFFF">中æ-?.com</font></b></a></p>

and that will not work in browsers that are not IDNA aware
as they will not ACE encode the host name before looking it
up in the DNS server (though it could work with an enhanced
DNS server).

What I want to say is that people will not know how to
convert a host name into ACE and will use the name in the form
most natural for them. And will write the host name into URLs
using the native form. So before all major web browsers are
fixed, non-ASCII host names will fail on the web unless you
use smart DNS servers (like NUBIND and others).

   Dan