Comments on draft-ietf-idnabis-bidi-04

Matitiahu Allouche matial at il.ibm.com
Thu Aug 27 12:39:08 CEST 2009


This is an answer to Andrew Sullivan's comment on 
draft-ietf-idnabis-bidi-04 which says:
<quote>
I find this peculiar:
   A "Bidi domain name" is a domain name that contains at least one RTL
   label.
If a domain name is RTL.RTL.RTL, it qualifies under this definition,
even though there is no bidirectionality (all labels have the same
directionality).  Explaining why this is still "bidi" would leave me
less confused.
</quote>

 I admit that this is a bit peculiar. However, if one considers the rules 
for RTL labels (starting with R or AL character, but may contain digits), 
it appears that there may be bidirectionality even within *one* RTL label. 
 Some words of explanation may be added to appease Andrew's concern.  For 
instance, complete the first sentence quoted by Andrew as follows:
A "Bidi domain name" is a domain name that contains at least one RTL 
label. Since a RTL label may contain both R or AL letters which are read 
from right to left, and digits which are read from left to right, even one 
RTL label is potentially bidirectional.


Following is an answer to Andrew's comment which says:
<quote>
Rule 1 in §2 says, "The first character must be a character with BIDI
property L, R or AL."  I can't tell whether that must is a requirement
or a statement of fact that is entailed by other IDNA rules.
</quote>
This is a requirement, and the word "must" would be better capitalized as 
"MUST".


Shalom (Regards),  Mati
           Bidi Architect
           Globalization Center Of Competency - Bidirectional Scripts
           IBM Israel
           Phone: +972 2 5888802    Fax: +972 2 5870333    Mobile: +972 52 
2554160

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