[idn] Re: Moving Towards UTF8 vs ASCII(ACE) Forever

[Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>]

> Do we wish to
> 
> 1. eventually move the DNS towards UTF8/16 OR
> 2. do we want to stay with ASCII(ACE) for the rest of our lives?

it's a false dichotomy.  

first, there are probably some purposes for which identifiers 
(including DNS names) should stay ASCII (and not even 10646
encoded as ASCII) for the forseeable purpose.  there are other
purposes for which IDNs are useful.

second, "ASCII for the rest of our lives" is a mischaracterization.
IDNA allows applications to accept and present IDNs in native
form, without requiring all applications and infrastructure to
upgrade before IDNs can be used.   IDNA is designed to maximize
the rate at which IDNs can be deployed.

users don't care whether IDN queries are encoded on the wire.
they only care about whether IDNs work for them.  IDNA puts the
user in a position to determine whether IDNs work for him -
a UTF-8 everywhere approache forces him to wait for everybody 
else to adopt IDNs before he can use them.

Keith