Three possible uses for IRIs

> > We're almost there with this one, but I still think it's a mistake, and it'll
> > make Gemini more complex. :/
>
> It will.  But in the end, if Gemini succeeds even modestly there will be more
> authors than programmers.

This is the point that sticks out to me. Perhaps I was wrong.

The method you outlined does not seem that complex, and it really would benefit
authors. It's still a breaking change, but all existing links would still work.

The most difficult part of what you outlined is the Unicode normalization,
which maybe not all languages have libraries for, and would also require
updating every so often. But it wouldn't be a requirement for clients at all,
just something nice to have.

However, it does raise a few questions:

I assume you mean NFC normalization? Any other option seems nonsensical to me,
but I'm also new to this in general. Would be happy to be corrected.

What if the user named a domain/file/folder in a non-NFC way? Now does the server
need to support NFC as well, and apply it to vhost recognition or local file paths
to correctly match requests? That seems wrong. But so does the user entering
something visually identical to what the the the sysadmin typed, and things not
working.

I'm not keen to muddle up the threads again, but it seems like this proposal
completely covers IDNs as well, which is handy.

Overall, I like it. The biggest thing holding me back is the fact that it will
break clients, over time. But perhaps that's worth it for the ease-of-writing
gain for non-English speakers.

I wouldn't mind updating Amfora to support this. As I explained in my previous email,
it sort of already does this by accident.


Cheers,
makeworld

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