Re: New Internet Draft on registering IDNs

[Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman@xxxxxxx>]

At 9:56 PM +0200 3/31/03, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> The problem, as I see it, is that the draft uses variant tables which
> work on a per-character basis, without any concern that not all
> combinations mean something. Most of the words in a bundle have no
> meaning in French and there is no real reason to keep them.
>
> I understand that there is no easy option (using a dictionary will not
> work since many domain names are not in any dictionary).

Exactly right. Either the system is automatic (no human intervention) 
and can create many unnecessary alternatives, or it is 
human-controlled and error-prone. In the latter case, what happens if 
the human who is reviewing all the names disagrees with the 
registrant about which names "make sense"? What if a reviewer misses 
some "sensible" variants and a different registrant grabs them?

> Did anyone try a bundle approach on his zone?

Asian registries have done so. But they have very different script 
variant issues than European registries.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium