[VCARDDAV] Default charset

[Cyrus Daboo <[e-mail]>]

Hi folks,
I just came across the following link: 
<http://microformats.org/wiki/vcard-errata>. This claims that RFC2426 was 
wrong to remove the CHARSET parameter on properties (which I personally do 
not believe - and no formal IETF errata has ever been posted for that). 
Apparently some clients require CHARSET parameters on properties for 
VERSION:3.0 too: 
<http://help.wugnet.com/office/Outlook-vCard-UTF-ftopict1163209.html>.

Clearly we need to clean up this mess. Now, the current 4.0 draft does 
state clearly that for a MIME object with a Content-Type header, the 
default charset is UTF-8 (Section 10.1) for the newly registered media type 
text/vcard. What it does not do is explain what charset to use for a 
"standalone" file (dealing with the microformats issue). iCalendar is 
explicit in stating that the default charset for an iCalendar object is 
UTF-8 (<http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545> Section 3.1.4). I believe the 
4.0 specification should be just as explicit about this.

Proposed changes:

- Add a new Section 3.4 with text matching that in RFC5545 Section 3.1.4:

    3.4.  Character Set

       There is not a property parameter to declare the charset used in a
       property value.  The default charset for vCard data is UTF-8
       as defined in [RFC3629].

       The "charset" Content-Type parameter MUST be used in MIME transports
       to specify the charset being used.

- First paragraph of Section 4.1 needs to be adjusted to remove reference 
to charset given the addition of Section 3.4 as above.

- Add an "Internationalization Considerations" with text matching that in 
RFC5545 (note this may be stronger than we want in that it mandates use of 
utf-8 only):

    XX.  Internationalization Considerations

       Applications MUST generate vCard data in the UTF-8 charset and
       MUST accept vCard data in the UTF-8 or US-ASCII charset.



-- 
Cyrus Daboo