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Re: Character encoding for Netconf messages?

Kent Watsen wrote:


Should the WG decide which approach NetConf uses?

Seem like its going to be one of:

	1. Only UTF-8 (no XML declaration not needed per message)
	2. At least UTF-8 (XML declaration needed per message)

Either way, the spec needs to be updated to document the decision



I disagree.
Why does the NETCONF protocol have to specify the XML encoding scheme?
That is part of the "XML header" or the "data model framework",
but not really something that should be mandated right now
in the protocol WG.

Doesn't this depend on the data models and features of the agent?



Thanks!
Kent


Andy








-----Original Message-----
From: owner-netconf@ops.ietf.org [mailto:owner-netconf@ops.ietf.org] On
Behalf Of McDonald, Ira
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 11:02 AM
To: 'Andy Bierman'; Randy Presuhn
Cc: netconf@ops.ietf.org
Subject: RE: Character encoding for Netconf messages?

Hi,

The IESG policy on charsets has been stable for years,
since publication of BCP 18/RFC 2277 (January 1998).
Verbatim from section 3.1 'What charset to use':

  "All protocols MUST identify, for all character data, which charset is
   in use.

   Protocols MUST be able to use the UTF-8 charset, which consists of
   the ISO 10646 coded character set combined with the UTF-8 character
   encoding scheme, as defined in [10646] Annex R (published in
   Amendment 2), for all text.

   Protocols MAY specify, in addition, how to use other charsets or
   other character encoding schemes for ISO 10646, such as UTF-16, but
   lack of an ability to use UTF-8 is a violation of this policy; such a
   violation would need a variance procedure ([BCP9] section 9) with
   clear and solid justification in the protocol specification document
   before being entered into or advanced upon the standards track."

So, either an IETF standards-track protocol MUST only support
UTF-8 (so that tagging is irrelevant over the wire) or it MUST
always tag the charset in use in every over-the-wire message.

If Netconf permits the use of UTF-16 over the wire without an
'encoding' attribute in the XML declaration, then Netconf needs
a variance - not easy to get.

Cheers,
- Ira

Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
PO Box 221  Grand Marais, MI  49839
phone: +1-906-494-2434
email: imcdonald@sharplabs.com


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-netconf@ops.ietf.org [mailto:owner-netconf@ops.ietf.org]On
Behalf Of Andy Bierman
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 6:56 PM
To: Randy Presuhn
Cc: netconf@ops.ietf.org
Subject: Re: Character encoding for Netconf messages?


Randy Presuhn wrote:

Hi -
If we specify a mandatory-to-implement encoding, I'd 
strongly suggest

that it be UTF-8.


Excellent topic for a VERY TBD WG work item!!!  :-)

(I agree with you, but I'm coding for internationalization.)

That's not an easy decision, or one that should be made
as part of some ad-hoc design process.



Randy

Andy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kent Watsen" <kwatsen@juniper.net> 
To: <netconf@ops.ietf.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 7:46 PM
Subject: Character encoding for Netconf messages?




The Netconf spec does not require XML declarations (i.e. <?xml
version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>).  However, both the SSH and SOAP
mapping specs show the use of XML declarations; though the 
BEEP mapping
spec does not... Should NetConf specify a mandatory encoding (e.g. USASCII) 
or leave it
up to implementations to decide? If it is up to the 
implementations to
decide, then would that require the client to defer sending 
its <hello>

until after receiving the server's <hello> in order to determine the
encoding to use?


Would it make sense for the <hello> to be USASCII and to list all
supported encodings as capabilities? - this seems flexible 
but then the
NetConf spec would need to require an XML declaration on 
every message

Thanks!

Kent


--

Kent Watsen

Software Architect

Juniper Networks





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