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<p>Don:<br>
</p>
In talking about punycode convertors that "produce bad results", we
probably have to distinguish between a narrow, technical view of
"bad results", and a more system-level, user view of "bad results".
Which did the UASG Workshop discussion refer to?<br>
<br>
Specifically, to your questions,<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2017-11-03 09:42, Don Hollander
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:D0E9DD38-2E9B-41C6-8EB6-DD6E4507A119@icann.org">
<pre wrap="">During the UASG Workshop in Abu Dhabi there was a brief discussion about Punycode converters.
1) Is anyone aware of any punycode converters (particularly in libraries) that produce bad results?</pre>
</blockquote>
As a software engineer, I'm confident that in the narrow technical
sense, many punycode converters produce bad results. In other words,
they probably have bugs. Most software does. They might be rare,
however.<br>
<br>
Also, I'm confident that many apps or systems which use
internationalised domain names do the conversion to and from A-Label
form (punycode conversion) wrong, even if the libraries they use
behave correctly. This would be due to bugs in how the app or system
uses the library.<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:D0E9DD38-2E9B-41C6-8EB6-DD6E4507A119@icann.org">
<pre wrap="">
2) Is there a test suite that can be used to test Punycode converters?</pre>
</blockquote>
In the narrow, technical sense, our UASG018 <i>Programming
Languages Evaluation Criteria</i> document is a test suite, or at
least instructions on how to construct a test suite. The obvious
next step in the UASG018 is to implement actual test suites,
runnable software test code, which exercise the library's Punycode
conversion functionality (among other things).<br>
<br>
In the system-level, user view, our other evaluation activities
would be that "test suite". For instance, the <i>Evaluation of UA
Readiness of Popular Websites</i>, the <i>Universal Acceptance of
Popular Browser (UASG016)</i>, etc.<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:D0E9DD38-2E9B-41C6-8EB6-DD6E4507A119@icann.org">
<pre wrap="">
3) Would the source of input (typed, cut/paste, input from a data file) make any difference? This probably has to do with RTL scripts
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>In the narrow, technical sense, the source of input should make
no difference at all. The Punycode conversion algorithm doesn't
depend on the source of input. It starts with a sequence of data,
and the source of that data is not material.</p>
In the system-level, user view, the source of input might well make
a difference. I would expect that this takes the form of how the app
handles the data before it calls the library. When the user selects
a domain name, does the app select all the necessary characters?
Does the app implement the Unicode bidi algorithm correctly, for
text with both right-to-left and left-to-right components? Does the
app pass the domain name correctly to the library? And so on.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:D0E9DD38-2E9B-41C6-8EB6-DD6E4507A119@icann.org">
<pre wrap="">
Thanks.
Don
Don Hollander
Universal Acceptance Steering Group
Skype: don_hollander
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
--Jim DeLaHunt, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jdlh@jdlh.com">jdlh@jdlh.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blog.jdlh.com/">http://blog.jdlh.com/</a> (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://jdlh.com/">http://jdlh.com/</a>)
multilingual websites consultant
355-1027 Davie St, Vancouver BC V6E 4L2, Canada
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</pre>
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