Re: [idn] URLs on a TV advertisement? On a named card?What IDNA brings into real world???

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

--On Friday, 05 April, 2002 16:30 +0800 jw-lin
<jw-lin@yahoo.com.tw> wrote:

>     Having read so many arguments about URLs in a web page, it
> seems that nobody
> talked about URLs outside the computer world.
>     As IDNA suggests all fields containing ML hostnames should
> be ACEd, does it apply
> to the real world? For example, a URLs shown on a TV program?
> printed on a name
> card? broadcasted on a radio program?
>     If the answer is yes, why we need a new
> only-machine-readable nameing system?

This is actually one of the key issues.  Let me try to summarize
at least one position:  A TV program, an advertisement on a
poster, and similar things (business/name cards may or may not
be a bit different, since one is able to study them, rather than
being expected to absorb or transcribe or remember all
information quickly), are all user interfaces (even if not on
computers).   If they don't display local-language characters,
ordinary users and people will believe that we have either not
internationalized things at all, or have failed at doing so.  If
they do display local characters, the problems of transcription,
look-alike characters, etc., immediately arise.

On a business card, or in a magazine, I would assume that
cautious people would display both the local-langugae form of
the name and the ACE form, just as most organizations with phone
numbers that "spell a name" (I don't know if you see that in
Taiwan) have gradually learned to also include the numbers to
eliminate ambiguity.  But these are not easy problems.

I believe that all of the details of the above, and most or all
of the risks and options for dealing with them, have been
discussed at length in the working group, so I suggest that you
consult the archives before restarting this discussion.

    john