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Re: [idn] URL encoding in html page

At 12:04 PM 4/2/2002 -0800, Doug Ewell wrote:
>This is probably true, but James is also correct.  Several people have
>complained on this list, loudly and frequently, that leakage of
>ACE-encoded names to old software clients is unacceptable.

There are always people complaining about some design choice.  For a 
working group to make progress, it needs to deal with those concerns when 
they are raised.  Then it needs to move on.  It is not productive to have 
those complaints constantly added to the discussion mix.

It is also necessary to insist that complaints be accompanied by solutions.

The simplistic UTF-8 advocacy is simply wrong.  And we have covered that 
ground many times over the years. (I hope folks note the repeated 
references to years.  This was an urgent project when it started and we 
still have not begun deployment.)  It is worth noting that none of the 
UTF-8 advocacy produced a complete specification.  In particular they 
failed to deal with transition.  This is not surprise because it is the 
fundamental weakness of the "just start using binary" approach.


>I believe James was simply trying to set up all the scenarios and
>establish what "works" and what "doesn't work."

Yes, such an effort is essential for understanding transition of the 
installed base.

However it is never productive to look outside the group that is being 
transitioned.  Components that do something other than Old Ascii DNS and/or 
New IDNA have nothing at all to do with this working group.  And, yes, I 
mean nothing at all.  They are a distraction.

We might as well also worry about printers that only do ASCII text or that 
do graphics.  Some can print only Old Ascii DNS strings and others can 
print extended characters.  So they are part of the wide world of 
internationlized character strings.

However they have nothing to do with this working group.

d/

----------
Dave Crocker <mailto:dave@tribalwise.com>
TribalWise, Inc. <http://www.tribalwise.com>
tel +1.408.246.8253; fax +1.408.850.1850