[Ietf-not43] issues and questions on FIRS

[Andrew Newton]

Eric A. Hall wrote:
> 
> This discussion is going all over the map, so I'm going to focus on
> specific issues. Personally I'd rather talk about larger considerations,
> like whether we should be more externally-focused than internally-focused
> and putting user-side considerations above operator considerations.

What user-side considerations are we putting aside?  I don't understand 
the concern.

> How does IRIS intend to satisfy the actor-specific requirements for
> substring searching within an IDNA-encoded name?

Good question!  First, I'll be the first one to admit we do not fully 
understand all the IDN implications.  So if anything is not quite right, 
I'm sure we can change it for the better.

One the search side, IRIS defines two separate searches: 1) find domains 
by name (<findDomainsByName>) and 2) find domains by internationalized 
name (<findDomainsByI18NName>).  I realize that it could be one search 
with a modifier switch, but for the sake of simplified server code paths 
I thought this might be better.  Anyway...

The first search wants a 7-bit ASCII domain name.  The second search is 
wants UTF-8 and allows for optional language tags.  Because each 
registry will be defining its own rules for the registering of IDN's, 
the language tags allow the client to hint to the server about any 
special normalization/canonicalization/transformation processes that 
might need to take place during the search.  Finally, there is a search 
too wide error (<searchTooWide>) which allows the server to tell the 
client, "I would return something if you'd narrow your search."

On the lookup side, entity names can be UTF-8, so a registry can allow 
lookup by either the 7-bit ASCII name, the 8-bit UTF-8 name, or both. 
Its their choice.

For results, there are two types of results.  The first is the obvious 
domain object (<domain>) and the second is the domain variant object 
(<domainVariant>).  The decision to use the domain variant object is up 
to the policies of the registry.  Some will have them, some won't.  Some 
might have them but not show them.  That's cool too.  IRIS allows them 
to express a difference between the two if they so desire.

-andy