Re: [idn] universal typability

[Mark.Andrews@nominum.com]

> > There are a lot of bugs and problems 
> > if you look into this more carefully.
> 
> It would be interesting to know EXACTLY what you think is
> the problem or problems.
> 

	Kent,
	      I will tell you now why UTF8 will not make it past
	the IESG and the IETF as a whole now, maybe in 10 years
	yes, but not now.  There is this little thing called
	installed base.

	The DNS is a *hostile* database.  Vendors have had to take
	steps to prevent machines being broken into by validating
	values returned from the DNS.  These are real, not hypothetical
	threats.  If your vendor has not done this I would be
	worried about what other threats they deem acceptable to
	expose you to.

	This means that for machines with host names which fall
	outside of RFC952+RFC1123 there will be significantly
	reduced functionality available to them.  Every site which
	currently needs/wants a valid name for access will block
	access as for them the machine has no name.  There are a
	lot of MTA's that enforce this requirement today due to a
	percieved benefit in reducing UE/UCE despite being contary
	to RFCs.

	This does not mean that UTF8 may not be a good long term
	target, but before we can use UTF8 we need to have upgraded
	most of the net.  It also means we need a intermediate
	target that can be used today so that those that care to
	upgrade will get the benefits now rather than in 10 years
	time.

	Mark
--
Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc. / Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews@nominum.com