Re: COM/NET informational message

[Joel Rowbottom <joel.rowbottom () centralnic com>]

At 11:04 04/01/2003 +0100, Måns Nilsson wrote:

> This (ie. IDN) has been discussed (and finally decided) in the IETF IDN wg
> for AGES now. If you are so concerned, why did you not engage yourself
> there? It is no secret what has been decided there.

I agree, Måns.

For the first time in a very very very very long time, I actually think 
this is a Good Idea. It's a transition to the new work which, albeit early, 
was bound to happen.

IMHO, a simple IDN solution which deals with many accents and characters in 
common use is a very valuable step along the way to IDN and the community 
should view this with an open mind. Especially bearing in mind the 
complexities and the very long timescales associated with the proposed 
full-Unicode alternative.

> Keep in mind that they are not breaking standards, they are extending one 
> application.

Absolutely.

I've tested their system with a couple of platforms, and it seems to cope 
with IE on both PC and Mac. I haven't tried it on any Unix-based systems 
yet, but I wouldn't expect it to work since both Mozilla and Netscape don't 
seem to like it.

However, I'd certainly have appreciated a lot more time to digest what 
they're doing rather than having a press release foisted on the world as a 
"done thing".

> The other, earlier attempts to do things like this (especially NuNames)
> have been way more rogue than this.

NuNames and new.net are the first which spring to mind. Most require 
plug-ins though.

Best regards


j


--
 Joel Rowbottom, http://www.centralnic.com - CTO and self-confessed Unix geek
 <t> +44 (0)20 7751 9000   <f> +44 (0)20 7736 9253   <e> joel () centralnic com
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