Subject: RE: is IDNA an OPES?

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 17:26:42 -0500

Alex,
I was a little behind in reading the various threads in this group! I wanted to clarify some terminology with you. When you referred to OPES agents, you meant any OPES device, OPES processors or callout server, right? I agree with you that raw IDNA ML messages cannot be conveyed to even the OPES processor (or, the callout processor too) from the content producer, using HTTP! I too am curious as to how jfc says that OPES can be used for IDNA conversion if it has to deal with this problem!

-Srini

>-----Original Message-----
>From: ext Alex Rousskov [mailto:[email-masked]]
>Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 4:48 PM
>To: [email-masked]
>Subject: Re: is IDNA an OPES?
>
>
>
>On Fri, 7 Mar 2003, jfcm wrote:
>
>> >My understanding is that IDNAs make HTTP messages malformed.
>>
>> The IDNA has been designed so it does not do that.
>
>Now I am confused: International domain names, as entered by users,
>would make HTTP messages malformed because HTTP addresses are
>ASCII-based, right? It is the proposed IDNA conversion that makes the
>addresses well-formed for old protocols. Since you asked whether OPES
>can be used to perform IDNA conversions, OPES would have to deal with
>raw IDNAs as input, right? Raw IDNAs make HTTP messages malformed.
>Malformed messages may not be able to reach OPES agents, even if those
>agents can handle them. Yet, you are saying that there is no problem.
>
>What am I missing?
>
>Alex.
>

---

From: Alex Rousskov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 22:03:51 -0700 (MST)

On Fri, 7 Mar 2003 [email-masked] wrote:

> I was a little behind in reading the various threads in this group!
> I wanted to clarify some terminology with you. When you referred to
> OPES agents, you meant any OPES device, OPES processors or callout
> server, right?

Yes. "Device" just sounds too hardware-oriented to me.

> I agree with you that raw IDNA ML messages cannot be conveyed to
> even the OPES processor (or, the callout processor too) from the
> content producer, using HTTP! I too am curious as to how jfc says
> that OPES can be used for IDNA conversion if it has to deal with
> this problem!

In an off-list message jfc clarified that IDNA conversion on the
system in question happens before the application (e.g., HTTP) message
is formed. To me, that means that there is another (new) application
protocol that is being used for IDNA conversions and that may be
subject to OPES transformations. I think jfc tried to clarify the rest
on the mailing list.

Alex.