Re: Localization issues: (WAS alpha v0.2)

["Martin J. Duerst" <duerst@w3.org>]

At 15:00 00/01/24 -0500, Olafur Gudmundsson wrote:

> >2. localization needs again. Does double-width period counted as a domain
> >   delimitator like a single-width period? On a similar notes, this is
> >   related to double-width Alphanumeric vs single-width alphanumeric.
> 
> DNS presentation issue again: Domain names on the wire are represented as
> <length><string><length><string><0> 
> where length is 1..63  
> where string is [USASCII] or BINARY depending on who you talk to. 
> 
> Each language/implementation CAN make up it's own rules about separators. 

Can, yes, but shouldn't. Domain names are exchanged in the DNS protocol,
where it's good to know that this is not an issue. However, they also
appear in a lot of other places. Let's not forget these other places.
If every Internet protocol and application has to know about all
separators used in all contexts, that would be a nightmare.


> >3. localization need once more. How to handle right->left writing order
> >   such as Arabic. One consideration is treat this as an non-issue because,
> >   for example, MS Windows CP1256 which defines Arabic actually encodes
> >   the domain name in the correct byte order as per norm from left->right
> >   but the render reverse it. On the other hand, this may not apply on
> >   some other system such as Mac or Unix.
> 
> 
> This is a real good question: we do not want to create a system where there
> are two possible orders, the language aware and the language ignorant
> implementation come up with different names. 
> The my gut feeling is force wire format to be left to right in all cases, 
> but I'm willing to listen to arguments for and against this. 

No arguments against it at all. Very much for it.


Regards,   Martin.


#-#-#  Martin J. Du"rst, World Wide Web Consortium
#-#-#  mailto:duerst@w3.org   http://www.w3.org