Re: [idn] Name entry

[Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman@imc.org>]

>I can't see that there is any need to be able to enter every domain on
>every terminal.

Correct. No one on this list has you have to.

>  If I want a domain just for a website with i e Swedish
>text only, there is no reason for it to have an ASCII only equivalent.

It appears that you are proposing "web-only" domain names. That goes 
against the basic principles of the Internet's reliance on the DNS. For 
example, what if you want to do TLS on that web site? You cannot get a 
certificate for it because the specification for certificates requires only 
ASCII characters. Some of the protocols for Internet administration tools 
probably also have similar restrictions.

It would do a great disservice to people to say "you can get this domain 
name" but not to list all of the things they cannot do with it. In fact, it 
is even a disservice to create a class of domain  names that cannot be used 
by all Internet services. There is a wide expectation among Internet users 
that domain names can be used anywhere; why break that now?

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium