Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of Internationalized Strings Representing Nicknames
RFC 7700

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                    P. Saint-Andre
Request for Comments: 7700                                          &yet
Category: Standards Track                                  December 2015
ISSN: 2070-1721

              Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of
            Internationalized Strings Representing Nicknames

Abstract

   This document describes methods for handling Unicode strings
   representing memorable, human-friendly names (called "nicknames",
   "display names", or "petnames") for people, devices, accounts,
   websites, and other entities.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7700.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Saint-Andre                  Standards Track                    [Page 1]
RFC 7700                    PRECIS: Nickname               December 2015

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Overview ...................................................2
      1.2. Terminology ................................................3
   2. Nickname Profile ................................................3
      2.1. Rules ......................................................3
      2.2. Preparation ................................................5
      2.3. Enforcement ................................................5
      2.4. Comparison .................................................5
   3. Examples ........................................................5
   4. Use in Application Protocols ....................................6
   5. IANA Considerations .............................................7
   6. Security Considerations .........................................8
      6.1. Reuse of PRECIS ............................................8
      6.2. Reuse of Unicode ...........................................8
      6.3. Visually Similar Characters ................................8
   7. References ......................................................8
      7.1. Normative References .......................................8
      7.2. Informative References .....................................9
   Acknowledgements ..................................................11
   Author's Address ..................................................11

1.  Introduction

1.1.  Overview

   A number of technologies and applications provide the ability for a
   person to choose a memorable, human-friendly name in a communications
   context, or to set such a name for another entity such as a device,
   account, contact, or website.  Such names are variously called
   "nicknames" (e.g., in chat room applications), "display names" (e.g.,
   in Internet mail), or "petnames" (see [PETNAME-SYSTEMS]); for
   consistency, these are all called "nicknames" in this document.

   Nicknames are commonly supported in technologies for textual chat
   rooms, e.g., Internet Relay Chat [RFC2811] and multi-party chat
   technologies based on the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
   (XMPP) [RFC6120] [XEP-0045], the Message Session Relay Protocol
   (MSRP) [RFC4975] [RFC7701], and Centralized Conferencing (XCON)
   [RFC5239] [XCON-SYSTEM].  Recent chat room technologies also allow
   internationalized nicknames because they support characters from
   outside the ASCII range [RFC20], typically by means of the Unicode
   character set [Unicode].  Although such nicknames tend to be used
   primarily for display purposes, they are sometimes used for
   programmatic purposes as well (e.g., kicking users or avoiding
   nickname conflicts).

Saint-Andre                  Standards Track                    [Page 2]
RFC 7700                    PRECIS: Nickname               December 2015

   A similar usage enables a person to set their own preferred display