Re: Next steps for rfc6874bis

[Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>]

Brian E Carpenter <[e-mail]> wrote:
    >> Brian E Carpenter wrote on 01/08/2021 23:17:
    >>> During the original discussion in 2012, and again recently, it was
    >>> suggested to change the delimiter from "%" to something else.  (The
    >>> discussion in 2012 suggested "-", e.g. http://[fe80::abcd-en1].)
    >>> This was rejected in 2012 because it "Requires all IPv6 address
    >>> literal parsers and generators to be updated in order to allow simple
    >>> cut and paste; inconsistent with existing tools and practice."
    >>>
    >>> Do we want to revisit this?
    >>
    >> Definitely, but can we deal with more tractable issues first, e.g.
    >> global warming, slaac vs dhcpv6, world peace, etc?

    bc> Since nobody has argued against Nick, can we put this issue to one
    bc> side (as we did 9 years ago)? If we do that, we can have a fairly
    bc> straightforward discussion with the URI and browser community,
    bc> focusing entirely on % vs %25.

I disagree.
I think that changing the delimiter should be on the table in the discussion.
If the browser community doesn't like it, then fine, but let's let the group
make the decision.

My argument is:

1) in order to maintain cut&paste, if we do %25, then we have to change
   everything anyway.

2) people using command-line tools probably can cope with swapping around
   stuff in the short-term.

3) On GNU-Linux glibc systems, it's probably an update to getaddrinfo() only.
   A new character is probably easier to put in than %25.
   That could happen really quickly.  Of course, it doesn't have to stop
   understanding %.
   Ditto BSD systems.  Few utilities parse that stuff themselves.

4) If we'd started in 2012, we'd already be done.  We don't have
   interoperability now anyway.

[I abhor %25, btw]

--
Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
           Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide