ned(_dot_)freed(_at_)mrochek(_dot_)com wrote on 21.02.03 in
<01KSPHV89YF2002O3W(_at_)mauve(_dot_)mrochek(_dot_)com>:
Part of the problem with having a group take so long to complete its work is
that what's minimally acceptable to the IETF/IESG changes over time. It used
to be that protocol could just use some encoding of Unicode, end of story.
No more. Now that stringprep exists the IESG requires it be used when
Unicode protocol elements are involved. Several recent specifications have
been returned to their respective working groups because they didn't do
this.
I note in passing that while the current News Article Format Draft talks
about normalization of group names, it does so without reference to
stringprep. This would need to change: Stringprep covers stuff besides
normalization, and more generally provides a checklist for Unicode usage
each protocol needs to consider.
That's probably because stringprep wasn't even known to many people on
USEFOR, and certainly that requirement wasn't.
I already pointed out that this is a new thing.
Stringprep actually solves a number of problems that some people here
didn't want to tackle, IIRC. That is, IMO, stringprep is a good thing.
However, I note that the IANA stringprep profile registry is currently
*empty* (except for reference to a certain RFC NNNN [that is, reference to
an unnamed draft] for IDN).
That's to be expected given that the registry is brand new and no RFCs have
been published yet that define such a profile.
I also note that Dan Kohn's alternative News Article Format draft uses
punycode, which already includes a stringprep profile.
Some detective work finds draft-ietf-idn-nameprep-11.txt (that *is* the
current one, yes?). We obviously can't use a profile that says it must be
used together with extra restrictions specific to IDN, but otherwise it
seems that we could mostly just copy this one ... except shouldn't these
profiles be reusable?
Some will be, some won't. If this one works for you great, if it needs tweaking
use it as a starting point for your own.
There's also draft-ietf-ips-iscsi-string-prep-03.txt, which defines a
profile for iSCSI, if you want another one to look at.
It's hard to figure this out by looking at current registrations (as
recommended by the stringprep RFC, 2454) if there aren't any.
Unfortunately, somebody always has to go first.
Ned