[idn] Re: Document Status?

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Dave Crocker <dhc@dcrocker.net> writes:

> At 10:57 AM 9/4/2002 +0900, Soobok Lee wrote:
>> MIME (and even RFC2047)encodes texts or descriptors , not ciritical
>> identifiers
>>like domain names as far as i understand.
>
> How does that difference matter?  What is it about that difference
> that makes experience with MIME not apply for IDNA?

If I press the PRINT button on a MIME part in my mail reader, noone
cares that the rendered MIME body, which is printed, is infeasible to
put back into the original MIME part.

If I press the PRINT button on an IDNA in my mail reader, it is
important that people are able to put it back into the original IDNA
[given some reasonable assumptions about the people].

IDNA will be used to identify entities.  If there is any confusion as
to which identity a certain IDNA really points at, there will be
security consequences.  MIME doesn't have this property.