How to implement IDN

1. Karmanyaah Malhotra (karmanyaahm (a) gmail.com)

Hi,

I understand there were a lot of discussions surrounding how IDNs should
be implemented. I'm trying to implement IDNs right now, but I don't get
which approach I'm supposed to use.

According to gemini://gemini.bortzmeyer.org/gemini/iri.gmi ,
the primary two options seem like
1. only using punycode for DNS
2. using punycode for DNS and the Gemini server

It seems like the spec hasn't been updates on this, so which method
would be the best for compatibility with servers?

Sorry if I'm missing something, or if this has already been announced
previously.

-- 
Thanks,
Karmanyaah Malhotra
https://karmanyaah.malhotra.cc/contact/
gemini://gemini.malhotra.cc/

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2. Stephane Bortzmeyer (stephane (a) sources.org)

On Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 09:25:37PM -0500,
 Karmanyaah Malhotra <karmanyaahm at gmail.com> wrote 
 a message of 58 lines which said:

> I'm trying to implement IDNs right now, but I don't get
> which approach I'm supposed to use.

No decision has been taken yet, so there is not an "official" way of
doing IDN in Gemini. It's probably the biggest issue in the temporary
specification.

> It seems like the spec hasn't been updates on this, so which method
> would be the best for compatibility with servers?

Today, it seems the majority of the servers expect an URI, not an
IRI. So you have to send ASCII-only requests (despite what the
temporary specification says).

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3. colecmac (a) protonmail.com (colecmac (a) protonmail.com)

Hello,

As Stephane says, there's no official decision yet. But option 2 is definitely 
the way to go. The Gemini spec requires the usage of URLs currently, and URLs
cannot have any Unicode in them.

Good luck with your implementation!

makeworld

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4. Stephane Bortzmeyer (stephane (a) sources.org)

On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 06:16:53PM +0000,
 colecmac at protonmail.com <colecmac at protonmail.com> wrote 
 a message of 11 lines which said:

> But option 2 is definitely the way to go.

There is no consensus on that.

> The Gemini spec requires the usage of URLs currently, and URLs
> cannot have any Unicode in them.

The Gemini specification precisely says the opposite when it mentions
"UTF-8 URLs". And, anyway, the specification is not final yet.

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5. John Cowan (cowan (a) ccil.org)

On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 2:23 PM Stephane Bortzmeyer <stephane at sources.org>
wrote:


> The Gemini specification precisely says the opposite when it mentions
> "UTF-8 URLs". And, anyway, the specification is not final yet.
>

It depends on what you think that means; it's not a standard expression.  I
interpret it as meaning URLs in which sequences of escaped characters can
be interpreted as UTF-8: that is, "gemini://example.com/Julius/C%c3%a6sar"
is a UTF-8 URL, whereas "gemini://example.com/Julius/C%e6sar" is not.



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
The present impossibility of giving a scientific explanation is no proof
that there is no scientific explanation. The unexplained is not to be
identified with the unexplainable, and the strange and extraordinary
nature of a fact is not a justification for attributing it to powers
above nature.  --The Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "telepathy" (1913)
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6. colecmac (a) protonmail.com (colecmac (a) protonmail.com)

>> The Gemini spec requires the usage of URLs currently, and URLs
>> cannot have any Unicode in them.
> 
> The Gemini specification precisely says the opposite when it mentions
> "UTF-8 URLs". And, anyway, the specification is not final yet.

Solderpunk has said before that this wording was a mistake, as URLs can only be 
ASCII as defined by RFC. Therefore they cannot contain IDNs.


makeworld

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7. Petite Abeille (petite.abeille (a) gmail.com)



> On Jan 24, 2021, at 22:30, colecmac at protonmail.com wrote:
> 
> Solderpunk has said before that this wording was a mistake, as URLs can only be 
> ASCII as defined by RFC. Therefore they cannot contain IDNs.

An IRI is an URL. But an URI is not an IRI.

Either way, how is the final version of the spec coming along?

?0?

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