I got the following response from our web meister. As to IDN requirements being based solely on ICANN -- I'd firmly disagree, and I suspect others would as well. ICANN is certainly relevant and important for IDN, but not the only stakeholder, by far.<br>
<br>===<br><br><div style="margin-left: 40px;">
> The Unicode list is not really public, e.g., it was removed<br>
> from Gmane.org later, and it is not indexed by search engines.<br><br>All incorrect. The mail list is public, and it is indexed by search engines. ... Try it:<br><a href="http://www.unicode.org/search/" target="_blank">http://www.unicode.org/search/</a> and type "ken whistler mail list" into the Google Search box. You'll get 2,720 hits on Unicode.org.<br>
<br>
As for Gmane.org: the list was removed from Gmane.org (not the only aggregator in the known universe, by the way) but a few days later Gmane.org were sent a *complete* archive of the list to do with as they please, and given explicit permission to archive it publicly. If they don't archive it, it's not our fault.<br>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;" class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> Disallow: /cgi-bin/ in <<a href="http://www.unicode.org/robots.txt" target="_blank">http://www.unicode.org/robots.txt</a>><br>
> is about the Web interface to the Unicode list archive among<br>
> other things.<br>
<br>
</div><div style="margin-left: 40px;">Huh? There isn't any web interface to the Unicode list. It's just a bunch of static HTML files.<br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 11:40 AM, Eric Brunner-Williams <<a href="mailto:ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net">ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Mark,<br>
<br>
Of course the first thing I did was google for "+unicode +u+1E9F", and observed that it is upper-case, and therefore, in itself, of little inate relevance to the DNS, where the broad rule is "case fold where case exists".<br>
<br>
It is however, an instance of requirements agency that is outside of the scope of this WG, assuming that this WG's requirements originate from the institutions I mentioned yesterday -- broadly -- ICANN and little else, except perhaps some DNS registry operators as an additional set of authors.<br>
<br>
I'm glad you're going to get a site administrator to look into the final issue Frank identified, as there is a historic issue with using texts which are only conditionally available. Its been ages since I last spent time on IETF process, but I'm sure someone on this list has the current cite.<br>
<br>
Eric<br>
<br>
<br>
Mark Davis wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">
<br>
<br>
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Frank Ellermann <<a href="mailto:hmdmhdfmhdjmzdtjmzdtzktdkztdjz@gmail.com" target="_blank">hmdmhdfmhdjmzdtjmzdtzktdkztdjz@gmail.com</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:hmdmhdfmhdjmzdtjmzdtzktdkztdjz@gmail.com" target="_blank">hmdmhdfmhdjmzdtjmzdtzktdkztdjz@gmail.com</a>>> wrote:<br>
<br>
John C Klensin wrote:<br>
<br>
> To say this a little differently, such changes in Unicode are<br>
> not made in secret, but involve opportunities for public<br>
> discussion. It is reasonable to assume that the negative<br>
> effects on IDNs of making such changes would be part of the<br>
> relevant discussions.<br>
<br>
I'm far from sure how reasonable that is: The introduction of<br>
u+1E9E was discussed in public, but decided by a third party<br>
not interested in its effects on the Internet, let alone IDN.<br>
<br>
<br>
For those who (perhaps unlike Frank) have not memorized the code points of all characters, this is the *CAPITAL SHARP S.*<br>
<br>
While of course Unicode can't be limited to just characters that work in IDN, this particular change -- and the ramifications for security and compatibility -- it was discussed at great length over the course of many meetings. It was encoded largely at the request of the German national body.<br>
<br>
Moreover, there is little issue that the form occurs in documents, nor that it is not the preferred capitalization.<br>
<br>
The Unicode list is not really public, e.g., it was removed<br>
from Gmane.org later, and it is not indexed by search engines.<br>
This is neither relevant nor public for practical purposes:<br>
<br>
<br>
I'll ask our administrator, but you can certainly search for material that is in the Unicode archives. Try:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aunicode.org+%22capital+sharp+s%22" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aunicode.org+%22capital+sharp+s%22</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Disallow: /cgi-bin/ in <<a href="http://www.unicode.org/robots.txt" target="_blank">http://www.unicode.org/robots.txt</a>><br>
is about the Web interface to the Unicode list archive among<br>
other things.<br>
<br>
Frank<br>
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Mark<br></div>
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