=> From: Peter Williams <P(_dot_)Williams(_at_)cs(_dot_)ucl(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk>
=>
=> Use the T.61 remmendation in the PEM DN pilots.
Using T.61 would be problematic at best, possibly fatal. The T.61 character
set is almost never used in computer environments: it was designed by the
CCITT in 1980 for a "super telex" application which is now completely
abandonned.
Western Europe, for example, uses mostly the "ISO Latin 1" alphabet. Granted,
it is possible to translate between Latin-1 and T.61, and back. But such
translations are almost always sources of confusion for the two alphabets to
not quite map. This is bad enough when doing plain document handling, but
would almost certainly cause deep troubles in a security environment -
e.g. what do you sign, the Latin-1 or the T.61 text?
If we pick a new syntax, we must be absolutely sure to rule out any needs for
translation, either by restricting the character set to ASCII (as in RFC-821)
or by allowing an explicit indication of the native character set + carrying
certificates and documents in the native format.
Christian Huitema