Of interest:
To: rfc-dist(_at_)rfc-editor(_dot_)org
Cc: rfc-editor(_at_)rfc-editor(_dot_)org
From: rfc-editor(_at_)rfc-editor(_dot_)org
Subject: [rfc-dist] RFC 3490 on Internationalizing Domain Names in
Applications (IDNA)
A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.
RFC 3490
Title: Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)
[...] URL: ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3490.txt
Until now, there has been no standard method for domain names to use
characters outside the ASCII repertoire. This document defines
internationalized domain names (IDNs) and a mechanism called
Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) for handling them
in a standard fashion. IDNs use characters drawn from a large repertoire
(Unicode), but IDNA allows the non-ASCII characters to be represented
using only the ASCII characters already allowed in so-called host names
today. This backward-compatible representation is required in existing
protocols like DNS, so that IDNs can be introduced with no changes to the
existing infrastructure. IDNA is only meant for processing domain names,
not free text. [...]
--
Sean M. Burke sburke(_at_)cpan(_dot_)org http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/