Standardizing on IDNA 2003 in the URL Standard

Shawn Steele Shawn.Steele at microsoft.com
Thu Aug 22 18:19:08 CEST 2013


Vint said:
> I think it is time to start a serious campaign to move to the IDNA2008
> standard for the simple reason that it decouples dependence on a fixed and
> now very old version of UNICODE. 

+1, with caveats (clearly)

> the non-letter characters may be cute but their cost is too
> high and utility too low, as I see it.

I like them :)   But that's digressing I think.

Mark said:

> There are three major options for clients:
>   1. Move immediately to IDNA2008.
>   2. Stay on IDNA2003.
>   3. Move to TR46+IDNA2008 as a transition to IDNA2008.
...
> That effectively leaves #3. And certainly major players like IE have shown
> that it can be deployed effectively.

Obviously I agree and am in favor of #3.  Sorry for my part in randomizing :)  Of course it's up to the browsers, etc. about when they want to do what, but as far as the other standards go, they should point at IDNA2008, and I would prefer other standards also point to TR46, even if they qualify the reference.

Everyone worked really hard on IDNA2008.  It's not perfect, but it's the consensus that the experts arrived at.  "Other" standards should be pointing at that effort, not picking some other course or sticking with 2003.

-Shawn



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