Technical Summary
If a protocol expects to compare two strings and is prepared
only for those strings to be ASCII, then using Unicode
codepoints in those strings requires they be prepared somehow.
Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (here called
IDNA2003) defined and used Stringprep and Nameprep. Other
protocols subsequently defined Stringprep profiles. A new
approach different from Stringprep and Nameprep is used for
a revision of IDNA2003 (called IDNA2008). Other Stringprep
profiles need to be similarly updated or a replacement of
Stringprep needs to be designed. This document outlines the
issues to be faced by those designing a Stringprep replacement.
Working Group Summary
The document records the consensus from discussion at the
NEWPREP BoF (IETF 77, March 2010) and the resulting PRECIS WG
regarding the problem to be solved in developing a replacement
for the Stringprep technology in application protocols other
than IDNA. There has not been controversy about the nature of
the problem to be solved, and consensus was not rough.
Document Quality
The document has provided a clear basis for work on the
proposed PRECIS framework, and thus has served its purpose.
Personnel
The Document Shepherd is Peter Saint-Andre.
The Responsible Area Director is Pete Resnick.