What rules have been used for the current list of codepoints?

Erik van der Poel erikv at google.com
Sat Dec 16 19:52:21 CET 2006


On 12/16/06, Gervase Markham <gerv at mozilla.org> wrote:
> If the side of the bus says one thing, but I type another thing
> that looks the same, then I end up in the wrong place. This is a
> security risk, depending on the ownership of the "wrong place".
> Therefore, registries should not allow this situation.

I agree that, ideally, registries would not allow this situation.

> So if I speak four languages, I will get security warnings for the three
> I speak perfectly that aren't the user interface language?

I wasn't really talking about "security warnings". I mentioned one
idea for displaying domain names to the user. If the name contains
unfamiliar characters, it is not shown as is. Instead, say, a shaded
rectangle, about the same size as the original name, is shown. This is
just one example of a possible UI.

If the four languages you speak are "close" to each other and use
mostly the same characters, perhaps such groups of languages would be
treated as, well, groups. English, French and German are sufficiently
"close" that showing an e-acute to an English speaker is probably OK.

> You seem to have this idea that language communities exist in their own
> isolated islands, all reading their own separate advertising and
> content. If things worked this way, why do we not have a Japanese
> Internet, a separate English Internet, and a separate Chinese Internet?

No, we have a single Internet, and a lot of people speak English as a
2nd language, so email that crosses international boundaries is often
in English (like this one).

This does not prevent companies from setting up Web sites in multiple languages.

> I suspect that having them not work in between 15 and 40% of users
> browsers (depending on which country you are in) would be a significant
> disincentive to deploying a registered IDN domain name.

Ideally, all registries would adopt and enforce sensible policies like
the ones you mention. In the meantime, some software such as
Microsoft's will probably continue to display some of the .com IDNs. I
guess time will tell.

Erik


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