Re: [idn] phasing out ACE

[Mats Dufberg <dufberg@nic-se.se>]

On Mar 30, 2002, 01:39 (-0000) D. J. Bernstein <djb@cr.yp.to> wrote:

> 1. Should applications be required to handle UTF-8 properly, in
> preparation for a UTF-8 world?
>
> The lessons of history are helpful at this point. If Keith Moore and his
> buddies had---with or without Quoted-Printable---required 8-bit-clean
> mail software in 1991, we wouldn't have sendmail's 8-bit bugs today. If
> they had thought a little more broadly and fixed other protocols, we
> would have been able to deploy UTF-8 years ago.

Stop nagging about the claimed bugs in sendmail. We all know that your
MTA is superior to any other know or futur MTA. OK?


You had the same problem with mail as with DNS. The mailstandard said that
the headers must be seven bit, and you wish for:

  And the lord said "Be 8 bit" and all installed MTA's were by the
  wish of the lord 8 bit clean. And the lord saw that mail was good.

Contrary to your claim, the path that was taken has proved to be a safe
path. The problems we have seen have not been due to bad protocol, but to
bad implementations.


> Here is one example of the variation in costs. Suppose we do a massive
> redeployment of mail-displaying programs etc. to present IDNA names as
> non-ASCII glyphs. Moving to UTF-8 then requires _another_ massive
> redeployment of those programs.

The first move (the introduction of IDN with ACE) will only require
replacement of mail clients. And nothing will truely break without
replacement.

The second move will require the replacement of both servers and mail
clients. That step must be taken with care.


> Even better, if we scrap this 7-bit garbage and move directly to UTF-8,
> _all_ programs will require at most one upgrade---maybe 0.5 on average.

  And the lord said "Replace 7 bit with 8 bit on the day of rest when
  nobody uses mail" and holy men did what the lord said, and nobody even
  noticed the change. Everything was replaced when people were at rest.
  The holy men saw that the path was good, and praised the lord.




Mats

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Mats Dufberg <dufberg@nic-se.se>
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