[idn] Case folding & Normalization

["Martin Djernaes" <martin.djernaes@kecam-han.de>]

Hi,

I have for a while been following you discussion about "a DNS service
with support for international characters" (I call all these ideas for
iDNS in the following), but I think that the good intentions are getting
a bit too far, so now I would like to put in my 2 cent.

First the iDNS is based on the current DNS system, which make case
folding so people do not have to bother about writing Microsoft.com or
microsoft.com etc. The idea the the DNS system should accept any case of
a domain name is make the usage more comfortable, but based on the fact
that it was possible to define a unambiguous way to do the case folding.

Now we are talking about doing case folding, normalization of
international letters and definition of "optional" letters in a new DNS
structure.

I would like to argue that any name existing in one domain should be
available in another domain (ex. microsoft.com & microsoft.dk). This
seems obvious since none say that only "local people" can have a "local
domain" (some have a few restrictions, but nothing which is keeping
anybody "non local" from having a name in another domain).

So now here is some european/scandinavian examples of why we shouldn't
accept any differentiated normalization:
In Denmark the letter Å (Latin-1: 0197) would be normalized to AA, but
the letter sequence AA could also exist in any name.
In Denmark the letter Æ (Latin-1: 0198) would be normalized to AE, but
AE is in Germany expected to be Ä (Latin-1: 0196)

Beside this the letter Ä (Latin-1: 0196) could also exist in a danish
name, even it's not a letter in the Danish language - how should we be
able to decide if AE is Ä (Latin-1: 0196) or Æ (Latin-1: 0198).

Without having any knowledge about Asian or other languages, I would
expect that the best solution is not to create any confusion in how a
word/sentence is converted (in all domains). If a language have optional
letters/signs, then let it be up to the person requesting the name to
decide which version should be used (do I want aahus.dk or århus.dk as
my domain name). Just like some words in the english language is written
the same, but have different meanings or different words having the same
meaning.

Just an example: In "internationa-english" the word flat (British
english) is the same as apartment (American english) - Should iDNS
automatically translate between these words, just because it's the same.
Today this translation is not done, and I do not see the reason for
doing so in the future (it would just create new confusion and
arguments).

-- 
Regards,
  Martin Djernæs

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Martin Djernæs                    martin.djernaes@kecam-han.de
Dipl.-Ing.                             
Alcatel Kommunikations-Elektronik GmbH Tel:+49 (0511) 6747 741
Postfach 3246                          Fax:+49 (0511) 6747 777
30032 Hannover, Germany                http://www.ke-online.de
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