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Re: [idn] Re: FYI: BOF on Internationalized Email Addresses (IEA)

2003-10-28 09:22:43

I wouldn't have thought so either, but at least some people questioned the need
for non-Latin characters, and went so far as to exclude them from a proposed
problem statement:

... There is a growing need to use additional
characters, specifically Latin characters with diacriticals and non-Latin
characters, in email addresses to better serve the needs of the
multi-national Internet community...

Mark
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Blanchet" <Marc(_dot_)Blanchet(_at_)viagenie(_dot_)qc(_dot_)ca>
To: "Mark Davis" <mark(_dot_)davis(_at_)jtcsv(_dot_)com>; "Mark Crispin"
<MRC(_at_)CAC(_dot_)Washington(_dot_)EDU>; "Abhijit Menon-Sen" 
<ams(_at_)wiw(_dot_)org>
Cc: <ietf-imaa(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>; <idn(_at_)ops(_dot_)ietf(_dot_)org>; 
<ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>;
<ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>; <ietf-pop3ext(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>; 
<lemonade(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>;
<discuss(_at_)apps(_dot_)ietf(_dot_)org>; <ietf-imapext(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>; 
<ietf-smtp(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>
Sent: Tue, 2003 Oct 28 08:12
Subject: Re: [idn] Re: FYI: BOF on Internationalized Email Addresses (IEA)



it appears to me that this thread is not very different from the idn
considerations on usage of idn in the world. So what is really new in this
discussion?

Marc.

-- Tuesday, October 28, 2003 07:10:59 -0800 Mark Davis
<mark(_dot_)davis(_at_)jtcsv(_dot_)com> wrote/a ecrit:

(I agree that it's currently nearly impossible to use computers if one
isn't familiar with the Latin script, of course.)

Which probably makes the rest of this discussion academic, unless we're
going to undertake solving *that* problem for Microsoft and the various
UNIX/Linux vendors...

It is currently impossible to use the Internet without knowing the Latin
script. However, the goal of most well-designed client software and
operating systems is to permit the user to work entirely within their
native language, with a fully localized system. This is reaching to India
and other countries; Microsoft has introduced fully localized versions of
Indic Windows just recently, and Linux vendors are hard at work to
produce fully localized versions of their software.

Email and Web addresses are the big remaining holdouts for most people.
People should not be forced to use a script that they are unfamiliar
with, just to use email addresses and sites in their own countries. Even
if they are familiar with the Latin script, it is very often a very bad
match for their languages, making it very difficult to figure out how
native words would be spelled in it.

Mark




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Marc Blanchet
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