Slashdot Mirror


ICANN Under Pressure Over Non-Latin Characters

RidcullyTheBrown writes "A story from the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that ICANN is under pressure to introduce non-Latin characters into DNS names sooner rather than later. The effort is being spearheaded by nations in the Middle East and Asia. Currently there are only 37 characters usable in DNS entries, out of an estimated 50,000 that would be usable if ICANN changed naming restrictions. Given that some bind implementations still barf on an underscore, is this really premature?" From the article: "Plans to fast-track the introduction of non-English characters in website domain names could 'break the whole internet', warns ICANN chief executive Paul Twomey ... Twomey refuses to rush the process, and is currently conducting 'laboratory testing' to ensure that nothing can go wrong. 'The internet is like a fifteen story building, and with international domain names what we're trying to do is change the bricks in the basement,' he said. 'If we change the bricks there's all these layers of code above the DNS ... we have to make sure that if we change the system, the rest is all going to work.'" Given that some societies have used non-Latin characters for thousands of years, is this a bit late in coming?

3 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stupid question by Ingolfke · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Read the news. Is organized religion currently a net win, or a dead loss?

    I like your sig... it's just not accurate. You've focused to much on a particulary component of the larger problem and have failed to recognize the actual whole of the issue. Here's a correct understanding of the problem.

    Read the news and some history. Is organized humanity currently a net win, or a dead loss?

  2. Re:Um... why? by CRCulver · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    There are still languages that use non-Base 10 systems, and if the reports are right (and, to be honest, they probably aren't) Piraha speakers don't use higher numbers.

  3. Re:Um... why? by CRCulver · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Oh, I've indeed got some impressions about Esperanto.