Re: [idn] Document Status?

["Eric A. Hall" <ehall@ehsco.com>]

on 9/1/2002 1:59 PM Soobok Lee wrote:

> I often run xterm and then launch MUTT (or PINE).

<snip>

This problem goes beyond xterm. For all practical purposes, all apps will
be required to use the text form for all exchanges, except in those cases
where the operating environment provides an "i18n domain name" data-type
as part of the clipboard protocol. Unless an application is willing to
explicitly claim support for ACE encoded domain names, there can be no
guarantee that the recipient application will be able to make sense of the
domain name.

Separately, the canonical problem here is managing multiple
representations and trying to negotiate over which representation should
be used for some specific function. This problem won't go away until the
i18n form is available in all protocols and applications directly. In this
regard, IDNA is a patch that introduces a new problem, not a cure to the
existing problem. Having said that, some degree of transition and
therefore negotiation is of course necessary. It should not be the end,
however. I would hate to think that we consider the problem resolved after
only having made it worse.

-- 
Eric A. Hall                                        http://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols          http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/