Fwd: "International Domain Names" support in KDE

[Thiago Macieira]

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Krall, Gary wrote:
>  Therefore a working
>group of the IETF (IDN Working Group) has been working on a series of
>documents which specifically address how client based applications should
>perform this encoding/decoding function.

That is the missing piece of code.

Our resolver API already uses Unicode strings and is, thus, ready to accept 
domains in any language. Summarising a quick check I've done of the KDE 
programs:

- - QStrings (thus, Unicode) are used almost everywhere when hostnames are being 
regarded. So there should be no loss of information when moving that data 
around in applications and libraries

- - The current resolver API (of which I'm the author) uses has QStrings in 
input and output values.

- - The current resolver code doesn't know how to handle IDN domains, so it just 
transforms the Unicode into a 8-bit representation and sends to the lower 
level functions. It is here that the new encoding/decoding functions have to 
be added.

- - Most problems arise when related to legacy code (i.e., before this API was 
introduced), C code and other stuff outside the KDE libraries (DCOP, KDE-ICE, 
Arts, krfb) and the encoding of special characters done in URLs. These 
problems have to be quickly dealt with.

I should also mention that the resolver API is currently being rewritten and 
IDNs have always been considered. I had even planned of adding an 
encode/decode function to translate a Unicode-based hostname into its 8-bit 
(or, in this case, 7-bit) format, which would be a placeholder for the future 
encoding.

>Now in terms of software there are two reference implementations.  One is
>from JPNIC which is referred to as "IDNkit" and can be found at:
>http://www.nic.ad.jp/ja/idn/mdnkit/download/index.html and Verisign's
>"Xcode" which we produce and I would be pleased to send this to the
>appropriate person who would look to facilitate this integration.

I believe I would be that person in KDE.

- -- 
  Thiago Macieira - UFOT Registry number: 1001
 thiagom at mail.com
   ICQ UIN: 1967141  PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358
     Registered Linux user #65028
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