- From: Roy T. Fielding <fielding@gbiv.com>
- Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:32:56 -0800
- To: uri@w3.org
> Are IDNs allowed in http IRIs? It seems like a silly question, but > currently the IRI draft tries to inherit the answer from the URI & HTTP > specs, and the URI draft tries to inherit the answer from the HTTP > spec, > and of course the HTTP spec knows nothing of IDNs. The result is that > the question has no clear answer. Does it need a clear answer, and if > so, which document is the place to provide that answer? I'll let Martin answer the specific question. The more general question is how do IETF specifications update one another given the dependencies within the technology? The answer is that they don't. Specifications are a snapshot in time that implementers use as a reference for guiding (not requiring) interoperability. Protocols (and the implementations of those protocols) are what gets updated. When 2396 is updated, all protocols that depend on 2396 (including HTTP) are automatically revised as a result -- that is the nature of a normative reference and why the IETF places constraints on what can be referenced normatively. By the same token, if someone were to update the standard for US-ASCII, then the URI technology must follow along with that update, at least until a revised URI specification is produced that says otherwise. As such, the http URI will be defined in terms of the new URI RFC as soon as that RFC is published, unless (or until) a revised 2616 is published that says differently. I don't know about the http IRI, since AFAICT an IRI is a presentation layer above URI and therefore not subject to any of the scheme specifications. If all of the HTTP implementations send the host subcomponent verbatim within the Host header field, then that is how the revision to 2616 will be defined as well. ....Roy
Received on Friday, 19 March 2004 00:33:26 UTC