Re: [idn] UTF-8 as the long-term IDN solution

[D. J. Bernstein]

Keith Moore writes:
> do you really think we'll be using a paper-tape I/O model 10 years 
> from now?  even on UNIX?  maybe we will - it's endured a long time -
> but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Ever heard of TCP? Byte streams aren't going away.

> p.s. if and when qmail has been around for 20+ years,  and if it still 
> has significant popularity, some young upstart is going to trash your
> code for being shortsighted and brain-damaged.

It has been around for more than 5 years. It hasn't needed any syntax
extensions except to work around bugs in other software (space after
MAIL FROM, for example). If it turns out someday that I haven't planned
ahead far enough, I'll make whatever changes are necessary.

For comparison: In February 1999, when it became clear that the revised
USENET message header field format was going to allow unencoded UTF-8, I
explained to Eric Allman how to make sendmail 8-bit-clean. (USENET
messages are often forwarded through mail by 8-bit-clean gateways.) A
few days ago, he released another security-fix release of sendmail. It
still isn't 8-bit-clean.

---Dan