Michael Everson asked:
> Do you really think that algorithm with all its warts is going to be
> used 50 years from now? I really would like to know.
You want warts, Mr Everson? Well, let's take a look at some history...
The standard for e-mail appears to now be RFC 2822, which obsoletes the
venerable RFC 822, which has been around since 1982 (that's 21 years) and
it descends from RFC 733. That's from November 1977, and it obsoletes RFC
561, which was 1973.
Effectively, we've been using the same cumbersome wart-ridden Internet
e-mail format for 30 years. There is not even an inkling of any other
e-mail format coming to take over the world. There might be some
technological innovation within the next 25 years that renders e-mail
entirely obsolete (neural implants?), but barring that, the format of
Internet e-mail is unlikely to change significantly. Ever. (That's why we
have MIME which sits on *top* of the basic format.)
Like it or not, such things have longevity. Network protocols are
conservative and they *must* be conservative to assure the widest possible
interoperability.
Normalization has been written into IDN, and like it or not, it may be
around for at least as long as our e-mail format. I wouldn't expect people
to stop using Unicode normalization as part of IDN until at least some time
after the year 2033.
Rick
