UTF8

[Sam Hartman <hartmans-ietf%mit.edu@localhost>]

>>>>> "der" == der Mouse <mouse%Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA@localhost> writes:

    der> All the same UTF-8 issues I've raised repeatedly, but
    der> apparently that is a lost cause; ssh implementations for
    der> traditional Unix systems, and others that use octet sequences
    der> rather than character sequences for the "version that
    der> matters", will just have to reject non-ASCII usernames,
    der> passwords, and file names out of hand.

My requirement as an IESG member is that it be possible to have a
properly internationalized ssh.  Among other things that means the
characters in usernames and passwords need to belong to some character
set.  IETF character set policy requires one of the character sets we
support be UTF8.

Personally, I'd be delighted if you could work within this requirement
and figure out implementation advice or language that made it
possible/easier for people on Unix and other systems where local
characters are not tagged with a character set.  I believe the
documents are acceptable if you don't manage to solve this problem;
only accepting ASCII is one way to implement the protocol.  I suspect
people who find better solutions will have an advantage in certain markets.  

Naturally, it's Bill/the working group's decision how much time should
be spent trying to solve this problem.  Bill may well believe the
problem has already been discussed to death and decide that it's not
worth any more of the WG's time.


--Sam