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RE: [idn] Preparation of Internationalized Host Names - Hebrew

At 7:10 PM +0300 7/6/00, Jonathan Rosenne wrote:
In host names, several Hebrew characters are problematic:

1. Punctuation

05c0 Hebrew Punctuation Paseq
05c3 Hebrew Punctuation Sof Pasuq

These should be prohibited just like other punctuation.

Please note that not all punctuation is prohibited. The rules for the specific kinds of punctuation that is prohibited are in the document. U+05C0, which looks just like the ASCII "vertical bar", is probably acceptable (since vertical bar is acceptable). U+05C3 looks just like a colon and is therefore not acceptable; thanks for pointing this out. (And I have noted it to the Unicode folks for when they update the standard).

2. Cantillation Marks
0591 to 05af

These should be either prohibited or ignored since they do not affect
pronunciation, similar to ignoring case differences.

Personally, I would rather prohibit them since their presence is most likely
to be an error.

If they never appear in personal names, company names, or spoken phrases, then they can safely be prohibited. Is that true for all of them?

2. Points
05b0 to 05c4

These should be either prohibited or ignored since they are optional. In
modern Hebrew they are seldom used, not all systems support them, and it is
valid to omit them.

Personally, I would rather ignore them because a user may enter them and why
not let him.

This is much more problematic. We do not currently have any "ignored" characters. If I understand this correctly, the host name <HEBREW LETTER HE><HEBREW POINT SEGOL>.com looks and sounds different than <HEBREW LETTER HE><HEBREW POINT TSERE>.com, but could be considered the same for a host name. If so, I think we would have to prohibit them, not ignore them. Does that sound correct?

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium