rfc2396bis editorial suggestion

I noticed this phrase in the last paragraph of rfc2396bis sec. 2.5:

  When a new URI scheme defines a component that represents
  textual data consisting of characters from the Unicode
  character set [UCS], the data should be encoded first as
  octets according to the UTF-8 character encoding [...]

I have two suggestions for this phrase.

"UCS" does not mean "Unicode character set" and the cited reference is not The 
Unicode Standard. If Unicode is to be mentioned at all, it should be properly 
cited, not confused with ISO/IEC 10646. So, make reference to "the Universal 
Character Set [UCS]", or to "the coded character set shared by the Universal 
Character Set [UCS] and The Unicode Standard [Unicode]" (adding a Unicode 
citation accordingly).

Also, if I correctly understand the intent, I think it would be a little 
better to replace "the data should" with "the scheme should require that the 
data", so that the resulting phrase is as follows:

  When a new URI scheme defines a component that represents
  textual data consisting of characters from the Universal
  Character Set [UCS], the scheme should require that the
  data be encoded first as octets according to the UTF-8
  character encoding [...]

-Mike

Received on Thursday, 14 October 2004 06:47:43 UTC