[Idna-arabicscript] mapping of Full Stops

[John C Klensin]

--On Monday, October 12, 2009 12:16 -0400 Vint Cerf
<vint at google.com> wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> I think we might be able to come to a conclusion this way:
>...
> 3. The mappings document is essentially informational and
> notional,   not prescriptive, so editing it as if it were
> normative is likely   counterproductive

Agreed (and with your first two points as well).

> 4. The idea of documenting UI practices seems useful, but, as
> I think   Paul argues, this need not be the work of the
> IDNABIS working group.

I agree with you and Paul on this.  The key place where I think
Paul and I disagree is that I don't see creation of a registry
into which candidate label separator characters could be
inserted for information (along with whatever explanations are
available as to why that is or is not appropriate) as either a
big deal or requiring any sort of normative / standards action
classification. Neither of us believe it should be part of the
effort of this WG (or, I think, any successor WG).

> If ICANN sees some value in (4) perhaps it can formulate a
> kind of   "known mapping practices" registry (I hesitate to
> say "best   practices") for various scripts (languages??)
> I don't see this as an IETF function, however.

FWIW, I think ICANN knows far less about UIs and similar issues
than the IETF and has a tendency to turn any project like this
into a big deal.  By contrast, the IETF has created several
registries that are managed more or less for the convenience of
the broader community, without much (or any) normative effect
other than public notice that someone is already using a
particular identifier and promoting the exchange of information.

If we are not going to create a registry, I'm opposed to
fine-tuning "mapping" with additional, last-minute, characters
and would argue that the character list should be removed from
the dot-oid mapping discussion because the list is not complete
and cannot be perfected in a reasonable amount of time.

   john