Re: [idn] Unicode tagging

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

At 11:30 AM -0400 8/16/00, Edmon wrote:
>uniform byte-length characters are extremely beneficial to DNS and we should
>try to preserve it in the protocol.

Could you elaborate on why this is true? In the applications that 
mandate using UTF-8, no one has been unable to implement it.

>We dont know whether some day we might go beyond UCS-4.

This is just plain silly. In fact, it is likely that we will only 
need a tiny fraction of the space allowed by UCS-4, and there are 
moves by ISO to make that clear.

>But we also have to understand that domain names are no longer simple text
>commands over the internet... it is part of a company's brand and
>identity... We have the responsibility to let people have the names they
>really want...

Nope, stop right there. We have a responsibility to keep the Internet 
running well. Once we have fulfilled that responsibility, we have 
another one to stretch out in ways that meet desires and still keeps 
the Internet running as well (or better) than it did before. If 
someone wants to use a name that will hurt the running of the 
Internet, we have a responsibility to tell them "no". If someone 
wants us to stretch into regions we have not had time to analyze for 
things like security implications, we have the responsibility to tell 
them "no".

Further, I believe we stretch for the benefit of the large number of 
end users, not of the smaller number of companies who want to profit 
from the Internet. Fortunately, both usually benefit at the same 
time, but when there is an imbalance, we should favor the users.

Seen another way, if we go too quickly on this in order to help a 
small number of companies who don't mind confusing users, we could 
easily hurt the many billions of people who have not yet started 
using the Internet. Our responsibility is to the larger long-term 
audience, not the smaller immediate one. Balancing that weight 
against the obvious desire for change (in this case, away from 
ASCII-only names) is not easy, but it is our job.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium