It is clear (at least to me) that if DIS 2 of ISO 10646 were an
approved ISO standard now then smtp MUST support it on the 8 bit
paths. Since it is not now but it seems likely to pass this time
around and RFX-XXXX may be ready in the same time frame, I think it is
prudent to include it in any list of character sets that includes ISO
8859-1 for instance.
Dan, if it is approved, and if there is sufficient experience with
whatever the options turn out to be, then I see no problem with slipping
it back in at a later stage. I consider both of those "if"s to be quite
open issues-- "likely to pass this time" is by no means a forgone
conclusion. In no event does it become equivalent to 8859-1 on
adoption: we know how to transport 8859-1 without profiles, 8859-1 is in
fairly extensive use, there are hardware implementations of it on a
number of platforms, it has been an International Standard for several
years now, etc. The equivalent for 10646 is some time away, and that is
*after* the profile issues (two octet? four octet? single-octet
codings? variable length codings?) are worked out as well as getting
the thing approved.
It is also clear to me that RCF-CHAR will never be an ISO standard.
If I were Keld, and JTC1/SC2 continues to behave the way it has been
behaving, I would propose it as a unifying notational system to
JTC1/SC22 or one of its WGs and/or propose it to TC46, where they need
to use character sets, not just make codes. While I might agree with
you that the odds of SC2 adopting it as a character set are very low (it
is not even clear that something like RFC-CHAR is part of their
mandate), I wouldn't make any bets against the other possible routes.
And I gather that he is in the process of pursuing at least one of
them.
--john