Re: [idn] UTC feedback

[Andrea Vine <avine@eng.sun.com>]

Keith Moore wrote:
> 
> well, more generally, if
> 
> in language A it is important to be able to register two different
> IDNs that differ only in their use of accent marks
> 
> in language B it is important that one NOT be able to register two
> different IDNs that differ only in their use of accent marks
> 
> then the only way I see to handle both cases is for
> each zone to enforce the rules needed for that particular zone.
> this could be implemented in the servers themselves (they could
> refuse to accept a zone file that didn't implement the local policy)
> or in some other process that handles registration in that zone.
> (note, however, that it's not just a problem for the TLD registries,
> which argues for doing this in the server)
> but it doesn't have to affect the IDN protocol itself.
> 
> on the other hand, if language B' has the characteristic of language
> B, but in B' it's also important that one be able to type in a name
> with or without accents and reliably get to the same service, then
> there needs to be some mechanism that assures that this will happen.
> again, this could be implemented in the registration process for that
> zone (which, when given any name which contained an accent,
> automatically registered the version without any accents as a CNAME
> to the version with the accents) or it could be implemented as an option
> within the master server itself, (type an accented name in the zone file
> and it automatically infers a non-accented record with a CNAME pointing
> to the accented one) small sites would probably appreciate the ability
> to do this.

I guess I see this as an international registry on a first-come, first-served
basis, with the addition of restrictions pertaining to squatters.  Obviously
there will be regional name authorities for the .fr, .de, .bc.ca, etc. country
extensions, province extensions, and whatever other extensions are set up.  So
if the Thé Café wants to register "thécafé.fr" and "thecafe.fr" and "thécafe.fr"
and "thecafé.fr", then of course it is up to the .fr registration authority.

> 
> one wrinkle is that whatever way you came up with to solve this problem
> has to work with DNSSEC.  so you may end up signing additional records.
> 
> can we satisfy ourselves that we need only deal with
> 
> a) the word spelled with all accents, and
> b) the word spelled without any accents
> 
> for all languages, or do we also need to deal with every possible
> combination of a letter being accented or not?

I'm afraid this isn't any more user friendly - in any case, it is impossible to
tell from seeing an "E" whether "e", "é", "è", or "ê" is intended without
knowledge of the word in context.  Even a dictionary lookup won't work, because
some words differ only by the accent (indeed the accent is there to distinguish
the 2 words).

> 
> Keith
> 
> all of the above presumes that we're using a modified version of DNS
> rather than some new protocol.  if we do it with a new protocol then
> we could investigate alternate approaches.

Such as?  You mean providing the user with all the possible choices, based on a
known language and dictionary lookup?

Andrea