[UA-discuss] Regular Expression

[Werner Staub (axone)]

Hi Don,

On 2017-09-12 20:44 , Don Hollander wrote:
> only insisting that the domain must have more than one label and the 
> TLD is 2 characters or longer.

This happens to contain an example of how we can get blinded by our habits.

Requiring *2 characters* for a TLD has a small effect for the Latin 
script. But for syllabic scripts - such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean, 
it requires a TLD be at least two *syllables* long. That is huge effect. 
And there are scripts where the number of Unicode code points used to 
represent a character has little in common with the number of key 
strokes the has to type, or even what the reader would perceive to be 
one or multiple characters.

With all the effort we undertake for universal acceptance, it would be 
tragic if that very effort were to hard-wire unintentional forms of 
discrimination against particular scripts or cultures.

Compare this with an example from the past: ICANN's initial versions of 
the Applicant Guidebook required a length of 3 characters for any gTLD. 
That included Chinese, Japanese and Korean - in which most frequent 
dictionary words are shorter. Reducing the length requirement to 2 
(rather than 1) for IDN gTLDs was a temporary compromise. At the time, 
ICANN had almost no staff from countries where non-Latin scripts are used.

Regards,

Werner