Re: [precis] spaces in usernames

[Alexey Melnikov <[e-mail]>]

On 03/03/2012 08:10, Alan DeKok wrote:
> Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
>> Alexey and I are working on an I-D to replace SASLprep (RFC 4013). One
>> issue we found is that, in RFC 4013, spaces were allowed in usernames. I
>> know the framework document now allows spaces in passphrases, but I'm
>> wondering if we also want to allow spaces in usernames. Something to
>> discuss in Paris, perhaps...
>    In a theoretical sense, yes.
>
>    Practically, usernames are largely email addresses.  And I've rarely
> seen spaces used in practice.
Spaces are allowed in email addresses, if quoted. Of course no sane 
person would pick an email address with spaces on the left hand side (as 
this is unlikely to work in many places), but at least SMTP allows for that.
(And then there are email addresses used for gatewaying from other 
systems like X.400. Such email addresses can also contain spaces)

I would be happy with discouraging spaces in usernames, but I don't 
think we can just prohibit them.