Re: [I18nrp] next steps

[Larry Masinter <[e-mail]>]

Here's a wild idea, flame away

> > There is a problem in RFC 6365 “Terminology used…” that I think is at
> > the core: It seems to imply that the way to compute equivalence of
> > strings REQUIRES normalization to allow determining a~b iff
> > normalize(a)==normalize(b).  But in general, the equivalence relations
> > one might want, for usability reasons, don’t have an acceptable normal
> > form.
> >
> > Continuing to put in normalization as an essential step is doomed to
> > failure. Some protocols may need to be redefined to allow
> > non-normalized strings.
> 
> Well, somewhere the equivalence check has to be done, else you have
> problems.  But you're absolutely right that always normalizing isn't always the
> right answer.

It isn't clear how Unicode defines "normalization" compared to how
the term is used in mathematics. If you start with an equivalence relation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_relation 
you can define a "canonicalization" if the set has a total ordering,
and pick the "least" or "most". But the form you might get by
doing so might not be desirable, or suitable to be called "normal",
even if it's useful for determining equivalence.

You don't need to normalize locally for using hash-table caching
if you allow the hash-table to reflect a cached redirect,
and put the onus on the origin to supply a canonical string.

You might think this would bloat the table with all of the
possible redirects, but as long as you look up on data entry
and the origin is consistent, there should only be one redirect.
In fact, you could limit it to one, or just periodically clear LRU.

I'd even include case folding, punycode and %xx-URL percent encodings
as possible input forms. The times they are typed in are
rare.

It would allow different TLDs to define their own additional
equivalences and case folding.

Some variation of this could be made to work for DNS, HTTP,
and email addresses with some enormous deployment problems.
Would need to prove that it works.

Sorry if this is terse

Larry
--
https://LarryMasinter.net