UTF-8 URL for testing

[Francois Yergeau <[e-mail]>]

I don't know whether this is of any value at this point, but those who
would like to test a UTF-8 URL on their own may point their browsers to
<http://www.alis.com:8085/~yergeau/url_utf8.htm>.  Click on the links
within to see whether *your* browser handles those crazy,
out-in-left-field, non-ASCII constructs.  I've found three that work fine,
and two of them together represent almost the whole browser installed base.

And for the record, Alis does support i18n of URLs through UTF-8, and is
planning to put as much support for them as possible in future releases of
Tango.  What is needed is standardization, and I am *not* satisfied with
the current syntax draft, which continues to ignore a very basic need.

If *recommending* UTF-8 means that URL syntax cannot progress to Draft
Standard, so be it: recycle to Proposed and come back in 6 months.  The
proposal of having a separate URL i18n document is unnacceptable, as it
would give rise to two different and possibly incompatible standards.  With
one Draft and one Proposed (at best), we would have a two-tier URL space
with the lower tier only internationalized.  I sincerely hope that such a
schism is not the consensus, even rough, of this group.




-- 
François Yergeau <[e-mail]>
Alis Technologies Inc., Montréal
Tél : [phone]
Fax : [phone]