Re: idna-bis and '゜'

Martin Duerst duerst at it.aoyama.ac.jp
Wed Nov 28 11:16:44 CET 2007


At 19:28 07/11/27, Patrik F$BgM(Btstr$B‹N(B wrote:
>
>On 27 nov 2007, at 08.13, Martin Duerst wrote:
>
>> With the current IDNA architecture, mapping happened at
>> a single place in the protocol stack. Any idna library
>> would do it, or it wouldn't want to call itself an idna
>> library. That leads to a consistent and predictable behavior
>> from a user viewpoint.
>
>The major argument for me to NOT include mapping in IDNAbis is that  
>IDNA(bis) is context free, while mappings that people want to have  
>(given the requests I have got for example) require context dependent  
>mapping. For example based on what locale is in use.

I very well understand that there are at least a few mappings
that are locale-dependent. [But in my understanding, these
are fairly limited in number compared with the total of mappings
currently in force in IDNA2003.]

>That one might need well defined mapping mechanisms is of course  
>clear, but it can not be resolved as part of the context-free domain  
>name layer in the chain of functions between user and wire.

My point is that if, as you agree, one needs well-defined mappings,
and if, as you say, these can't be part of the context-free
domain name layer, then it looks to me like the only conclusion
is to use no mappings at all.

As a simple example, let's assume that I want to put the domain
name www.IBM.com on a Web page. There is no guarantee that this
isn't seen and remembered, and later input, by somebody with a
Turkish locale on their computer. Therefore, there is no guarantee
that this may not lead to another domain, www.[dotless-i]bm.com
(which may or may not exist). Therefore, I'd better never ever
even start with www.IBM.com, and always use www.ibm.com.

So if IDNAbis is going the way it's going (and I'm currently not
saying that this way is totally wrong), then it can't just
dump mappings on immaginary higher layers or the mythical
"user interface". It has to acknowledge that because we can't
make mappings work for everybody, we removed them, so everybody
please just live without them.

Regards,    Martin.

P.S.: The above all applies even to a new design. Changes should
      be made much more cautiously in case of an existing protocol.


#-#-#  Martin J. Du"rst, Assoc. Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University
#-#-#  http://www.sw.it.aoyama.ac.jp       mailto:duerst at it.aoyama.ac.jp     



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