Internet Architecture Board (IAB) H. Flanagan, Ed.Internet-DraftRequest for Comments: 7997 RFC Editor Updates: 7322(if approved) April 25,November 2016Intended status:Category: InformationalExpires: October 27, 2016ISSN: 2070-1721 The Use of Non-ASCII Characters in RFCsdraft-iab-rfc-nonascii-02Abstract In order to support the internationalization of protocols and a more diverse Internet community, the RFC Series must evolve to allow for the use of non-ASCII characters in RFCs. While English remains the required language of the Series, the encoding of future RFCs will be in UTF-8, allowing for a broader range of characters than typically used in the English language. This document describes the RFC Editor requirements and gives guidance regarding the use of non-ASCII characters in RFCs. This document updates RFC 7322. Pleasereview the PDF version ofview thisdraft.document in PDF form to see the full text. Status of This Memo ThisInternet-Draftdocument issubmitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documentsnot an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This document is a product of the InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF). NoteArchitecture Board (IAB) and represents information thatother groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The listthe IAB has deemed valuable to provide for permanent record. It represents the consensus ofcurrent Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents validthe Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Documents approved for publication by the IAB are not amaximumcandidate for any level ofsix monthsInternet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may beupdated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documentsobtained atany time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on October 27, 2016.http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7997. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document.Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 2. Basic Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Rules for the Use of Non-ASCII Characters . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.1. General UsageThroughoutthroughout a Document . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2. Person Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 3.3. Company Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 3.4. Body of the Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.5. Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 3.6. Code Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .910 3.7. Bibliographic Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .910 3.8. Keywords and Citation Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.9. Address Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1011 4. Normalization Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5. XML Markup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6.IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 7.Internationalization Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 8.12 7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 9. Change log - to be removed by the RFC Editor . . . . . . . . 11 9.1. draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-01 to -02 . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 9.2. draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-00 to -01 . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 9.3. draft-flanagan-nonascii to draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-00 . . 12 9.4. -04 to -05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 9.5. -04 to -05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129.6. -02 to -04 . . . .8. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210. References . . . .IAB Members at the Time of Approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Acknowledgements . . . . . .12 Appendix A. Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 1. Introduction Please review the PDF version of thisdraft.document. For much of the history of the RFC Series, the character encoding used for RFCs has been ASCII[RFC0020].[RFC20]. This was a sensible choice at the time: the language of the Series has always been English, a language that primarily uses ASCII-encoded characters (ignoring for a moment words borrowed from more richly decorated alphabets); and, ASCII is the "lowest common denominator" for character encoding, making cross-platform viewing trivial. There are limits to ASCII, however, that hinder its continued use as the exclusive character encoding for the Series. The increasing need for easily readable, internationalized content suggests it is time to allow non-ASCII characters in RFCs where necessary. To support this move away from ASCII, RFCs will switch to supporting UTF-8 as the default character encoding and will allow support for a broad range of Unicodecharacter support. [UnicodeCurrent]characters [UnicodeCurrent]. Note that the RFC Editor may reject anycodepointcode point that does not render adequatelyin enoughacross all formats oronin enough rendering engines using thecurrentv3 tooling. Given the continuing goal of maximum readability across platforms, the use of non-ASCII characters should be limitedin a documentto only where necessary within the text. This document describes the rules under which non-ASCII characters may be used in an RFC. These rules will be applied as the necessary changes are made to submission checking and editorial tools. This document updates the RFC Style Guide [RFC7322]. The detailsdescribedincluded in this document are expected to change based on experience gained in implementing theRFC production center's toolset.new publication toolsets. Revised documents will be published capturing those changes as thetoolset istoolsets are completed. Other implementers must not expect those changes to remainbackwards-compatiblebackwards compatible with the detailsdescribedincluded in this document. 2. Basic Requirements Two fundamental requirements inform the guidance and examples provided in this document. They are: o Searches against RFC indexes and database tables need to return expected results and support appropriate Unicode string matching behaviors; o RFCs must be able todisplaybe displayed correctly across a wide range of readers and browsers. People whose systems do not have the fonts needed to display a particular RFC need to be able to read the various publication formats and the XML correctly in order to understand and implement the information described in the document. 3. Rules for the Use of Non-ASCII Characters This section describes the guidelines for the use of non-ASCII characters in an RFC. If the RFC Editor identifies areas where the use of non-ASCII characters negatively impacts the readability of the text, they will request alternate text. The RFC Editor may, in cases of entire words represented in non-ASCII characters, ask for a set of reviewers to verify the meaning, spelling, characters, and grammar of the text. 3.1. General UsageThroughoutthroughout a Document Where the use of non-ASCII characters is purelyaspart of an example and not otherwise required for correct protocol operation, escaping the non-ASCII character is not required. Note, however, that as the language of the RFC Series is English, the use of non-ASCII characters is based on the spelling of words commonly used in the English language following the guidance in the Merriam-Webster dictionary [MerrWeb]. The RFC Editor will use the primary spelling listed in that dictionary by default. Example of non-ASCII characters that do not require escaping(the example(example from Section 3.1.1.12 ofRFC4475,RFC 4475 [RFC4475], with a hex dump replaced by the actual characterglyphs) [RFC4475]:glyphs): This particular response contains unreserved andnon-asciinon-ASCII UTF-8 characters. This response is well formed. A parser must accept this message. Message Details : unreason SIP/2.0 200 = 2**3 * 5**2но сто девяносто девять - простое(See PDF for non-ASCII character string) Via: SIP/2.0/UDP 192.0.2.198;branch=z9hG4bK1324923 Call-ID: unreason.1234ksdfak3j2erwedfsASdf CSeq: 35 INVITE From: sip:user@example.com;tag=11141343 To: sip:user@example.edu;tag=2229 Content-Length: 154 Content-Type: application/sdp 3.2. Person Names Person names may appear in several places within anRFC.RFC (e.g., the header, Acknowledgements, and References). When a script outside the Unicode Latin blocks [UNICODE-CHART] is used fora personan individual name, an author-provided, ASCII-only identifier will appear immediately after the non-Latin characters, surrounded by parentheses. This will improve general readability of the text.[UNICODE-CHART].Examplefor theheader: OLD: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) J. Tong Request for Comments: 7380 C. Bi, Ed. Category: Standards Track China Telecom ISSN: 2070-1721רוני אבןR. Even Q. Wu, Ed. R. Huang Huawei November 2014 PROPOSED/NEW: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) J. Tong Request for Comments: 7380 C. Bi, Ed. Category: Standards Track China Telecom ISSN: 2070-1721 (See PDF for non-ASCII character string) (R. Even)吴钦(See PDF for non-ASCII character string) (Q. Wu), Ed. R. Huang Huawei November 2014 Examplefor the Acknowledgements:Acknowledgements section: OLD: The following people contributed significant text to early versions of this draft: Patrik Faltstrom, William Chan, and Fred Baker. PROPOSED/NEW: The following people contributed significant text to early versions of this draft: PatrikFältström, 陈智昌(See PDF for non-ASCII character string) (Patrik Falstrom), (See PDF for non-ASCII character string) (William Chan), and Fred Baker. Examplefor References:reference entry: OLD: [RFC6630] Cao, Z., Deng, H., Wu, Q., and G. Zorn, Ed., "EAP Re-authentication Protocol Extensions for Authenticated Anticipatory Keying (ERP/AAK)", RFC 6630, June 2012.NEWNEW: [RFC6630] Cao, Z., Deng, H.,吴钦(See PDF for non-ASCII character string) (Wu, Q.), and G. Zorn, Ed., "EAP Re-authentication Protocol Extensions for Authenticated Anticipatory Keying (ERP/AAK)", RFC 6630, June 2012. 3.3. Company Names Company names may appear in several places within an RFC. In all cases, valid Unicode is required. For names that include characters outside of the Unicode Latin and Latin Extendedscript,scripts, an author- provided, ASCII-only identifier is required to assist insearchsearching and indexing of the document. 3.4. Body of the Document When the mention of non-ASCII characters is required for correct protocol operation and understanding, the characters' Unicodecharacter name orcodepoint MUSTpoints must beincludedused in the text. The addition of each character name is encouraged. o Non-ASCII characters will require identifying the Unicode code point. o Use of the actual UTF-8 character (e.g.,Δ)(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)) is encouraged so that a reader can more easily see what the character is, if their device can render the text. o The use of the Unicode character names like "INCREMENT" in addition to the use of Unicode code points is also encouraged. When used, Unicode character names should be in all capital letters. Examples: OLD [RFC7564]: However, the problem is made more serious by introducing the full range of Unicode code points into protocol strings. For example, the characters U+13DA U+13A2 U+13B5 U+13AC U+13A2 U+13AC U+13D2 from the Cherokee block look similar to the ASCII characters "STPETER" as they might appear when presented using a "creative" font family. NEW/ALLOWED: However, the problem is made more serious by introducing the full range of Unicode code points into protocol strings. For example, the characters U+13DA U+13A2 U+13B5 U+13AC U+13A2 U+13AC U+13D2(ᏚᎢᎵᎬᎢᎬᏒ)((See PDF for non-ASCII character string)) from the Cherokee block look similar to the ASCII characters "STPETER" as they might appear when presented using a "creative" font family. ALSO ACCEPTABLE: However, the problem is made more serious by introducing the full range of Unicode code points into protocol strings. For example, the characters"ᏚᎢᎵᎬᎢᎬᏒ""(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)" (U+13DA U+13A2 U+13B5 U+13AC U+13A2 U+13AC U+13D2) from the Cherokee block look similar to the ASCII characters "STPETER" as they might appear when presented using a "creative" font family. Example of proper identification of Unicode characters in an RFC: Acceptable: o Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the U+2206 character. Preferred: 1. Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the U+2206 character("Δ").("(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)"). 2. Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the U+2206 character (INCREMENT). 3. Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the U+2206 character("Δ",("(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)", INCREMENT). 4. Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the U+2206 character (INCREMENT,"Δ")."(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)"). 5. Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the "Delta" character"Δ""(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)" (U+2206). 6. Temperature changes in the Temperature Control Protocol are indicated by the character"Δ""(See PDF for non-ASCII character string)" (INCREMENT, U+2206). Which option of (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), or (6) is preferred may depend on context and the specific character(s) in question. All are acceptable within an RFC.BCP 137, "ASCII"US-ASCII Escaping of Unicode Character" [BCP137] describes the pros and cons of different options for identifying Unicode characters and may help authors decide how to represent the non-ASCII characters inan ASCII document BCP137 [BCP137].their documents. 3.5. Tables Tables follow the same rules for identifiers and characters as in "Body of the Document" (Section 3.4). If it is sensible (i.e., more understandable for a reader) for a given document to have twotablestables, -- one including the identifiers and non-ASCII characters and a second with just the non-ASCII characters -- then that will be allowedon a case-by-case basis.at the discretion of the authors. Original text from "Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of Internationalized Strings Representing Usernames and Passwords" [RFC7613]. Table 3: A sample of legal passwords +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | # | Password | Notes | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 12| <correct horse battery staple> | ASCII space is allowed | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 13| <Correct Horse Battery Staple> | Different from example 12 | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 14| <πßå> | Non-ASCII letters are OK | | | | (e.g., GREEK SMALL LETTER | | | | PI, U+03C0) | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 15| <Jack of ♦s> | Symbols are OK (e.g., BLACK | | | | DIAMOND SUIT, U+2666) | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 16| <foo bar> | OGHAM SPACE MARK, U+1680, is | | | | mapped to U+0020 and thus | | | | the full string is mapped to | | | | <foo bar> | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ Preferred text: Table 3: A sample of legal passwords +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | # | Password | Notes | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 12| <correct horse battery staple> | ASCII space is allowed | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 13| <Correct Horse Battery Staple> | Different from example 12 | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 14|<πß๗><(See PDF for non-ASCII | Non-ASCII letters are OK | | | character string)> | (e.g., GREEK SMALL LETTER | | | | PI, U+03C0; LATIN SMALL | | | | LETTER SHARP S, U+00DF; THAI | | | | DIGIT SEVEN, U+0E57) | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 15| <Jack of♦s>(See PDF for non- | Symbols are OK (e.g., BLACK | | | ASCII character string)s> | DIAMOND SUIT, U+2666) | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ | 16|<foo bar><foo(See PDF for non-ASCII | OGHAM SPACE MARK, U+1680, is | | | character string)bar> | mapped to U+0020 and thus | | | | the full string is mapped to | | | | <foo bar> | +------------------------------------+------------------------------+ 3.6. Code Components The RFC Editor encourages the use of the U+ notation except within a code component whereyouone must follow the rules of the programming language in whichyou are writingthecode.code is being written. Code components are generally expected to use fixed-width fonts. Where such fonts are not available for a particular script, the bestscript- appropriatescript-appropriate font will be used for that part of the code component. 3.7. Bibliographic Text The reference entry must be in English; whatever subfields are present must be available in ASCII-encoded characters. For references to RFCs andInternet Drafts,Internet-Drafts, the author's name will beincludedformatted in the reference aslisted on the front header of theper current RFCor Internet Draft.Style Guide recommendations. As long as good sense is used, the reference entry may also include non-ASCII characters at the author's discretion and as provided by the author. The RFC Editor may request that a third party, such as a language specialist or subject matter expert, review of any non-ASCIIreference entry.reference. This applies to both normative and informative references. Example: [GOST3410] "Information technology. Cryptographic data security. Signature and verification processes of [electronic] digital signature.", GOST R 34.10-2001, Gosudarstvennyi Standard of Russian Federation, Government Committee of Russia for Standards, 2001. (In Russian) Allowable addition to the above citation:"Информационная технология. Криптографическая защита информации. Процессы формирования и проверки электронной цифровой подписи", GOST R 34.10-2001, Государственный стандарт Российской Федерации, 2001.(See PDF for non-ASCII character strings) Alternatively: [GOST3410] "Information technology. Cryptographic data security. Signature and verification processes of [electronic] digital signature.", GOST R 34.10-2001, Gosudarstvennyi Standard of Russian Federation,Правительственная комиссия России по стандартам(See PDF for non-ASCII character strings) (Government Committee of Russia for Standards), 2001. (In Russian) 3.8. Keywords and Citation Tags Keywords (as tagged with the <keyword> element inXML),XML) and citation tags (as defined in the anchor attributes of <reference> elements) mustbecontain only ASCIIonly.characters. 3.9. Address Information The purpose of providing address information, either postal ore-mail,email, is to assist readers of an RFCto contactin contacting the author or authors. Authors may include the official postal address as recognized by their company or local postal service without additional non-ASCII character escapes. If the email address includes non-ASCII characters and is a valid email address at the time of publication, non-ASCII character escapes are not required. Example: Qin Wu (editor) Huawei 101 Software Avenue, Yuhua District Nanjing, Jiangsu 210012 ChinaAlternateAdditional contact information:吴钦 (editor) 华为技术有限公司 雨花区软件大道101号 江苏南京 210012 中国(See PDF for non-ASCII character strings) ------ Roni Even Huawei 14 David Hamelech Tel Aviv 64953 IsraelAlternateAdditional contact information:רוני אבן וואווי דוד המלך 14 תל אביב 64953 ישראל(See PDF for non-ASCII character strings) 4. Normalization Forms Authors should not expect normalization formsto[UNICODE-NORM]to be preserved. If a particular normalization form is expected, note that in the text of the RFC. 5. XML Markup As described above, use of non-ASCII characters in areas such as email, company name,addresses,address, and name is allowed. In order to make it easier for code to identify the appropriate ASCII alternatives, authors must include an "ascii" attribute to their XML markup when an ASCII alternative is required. See[I-D.iab-xml2rfc][RFC7991] for more detail on how to tag ASCII alternatives. 6.IANA Considerations This document makes no request of IANA. Note to RFC Editor: this section may be removed on publication as an RFC. 7.Internationalization Considerations The ability to use non-ASCII characters in RFCs in a clear and consistent manner will improve the ability to describe internationalized protocols and will recognize the diversity of authors. However, the goal of readability will override the use of non-ASCII characters within the text.8.7. Security Considerations Valid Unicode that matches the expected text must be verified in order to preserve expected behavior and protocol information.9. Change log - to be removed by the RFC Editor 9.1. draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-01 to -02 Authors, Contributors: section renamed "Person names", text simplified, example of a reference added. Bibliographic Text: added an alternate example for a reference with non-ASCII characters. 9.2. draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-00 to -01 Code Components: added fixed-width font clarification Authors, Bibliographic info: Clarified requirements for full name, how name will be displayed 9.3. draft-flanagan-nonascii to draft-iab-rfc-nonascii-00 Changed requirement for all nonASCII names (including company names) to require an ASCII equivalent to requiring it only for non-Latin characters. Extended Latin is also acceptable without an ASCII equivalent. 9.4. -04 to -05 Keywords: expanded section to include citation tags. Internationalization considerations: reiterated that the use of non- ASCII characters is not automatically guaranteed. 9.5. -04 to -05 Introduction: added statement regarding document subject to change. Tables: added example. Code: removed placeholder for example. 9.6. -02 to -04 Introduction and Abstract: change to be clearer about what/why non- ASCII characters are being allowed. XML Markup: section added. 10.8. Informative References [BCP137] Klensin, J., "ASCII Escaping of Unicode Characters", BCP 137, RFC 5137, February 2008, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp137>.[I-D.iab-xml2rfc] Hoffman, P., "The "xml2rfc" version 3 Vocabulary", draft- iab-xml2rfc-03 (work in progress), February 2016.[MerrWeb]Merriam-Webster,Inc.,Merriam-Webster, Inc., "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition", 2009.[RFC0020][RFC20] Cerf, V., "ASCII format for network interchange", STD 80, RFC 20, DOI 10.17487/RFC0020, October 1969, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc20>.[RFC3550] Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V. Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, DOI 10.17487/RFC3550, July 2003, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3550>.[RFC4475] Sparks, R., Ed., Hawrylyshen, A., Johnston, A., Rosenberg, J., and H. Schulzrinne, "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Torture Test Messages", RFC 4475, DOI 10.17487/RFC4475, May 2006, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4475>.[RFC6949] Flanagan, H. and N. Brownlee, "RFC Series Format Requirements and Future Development", RFC 6949, DOI 10.17487/RFC6949, May 2013, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6949>.[RFC7322] Flanagan, H. and S. Ginoza, "RFC Style Guide", RFC 7322, DOI 10.17487/RFC7322, September 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7322>. [RFC7564] Saint-Andre, P. and M. Blanchet, "PRECIS Framework: Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of Internationalized Strings in Application Protocols", RFC 7564, DOI 10.17487/RFC7564, May 2015, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7564>. [RFC7613] Saint-Andre, P. and A. Melnikov, "Preparation, Enforcement, and Comparison of Internationalized Strings Representing Usernames and Passwords", RFC 7613, DOI 10.17487/RFC7613, August 2015, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7613>. [RFC7991] Hoffman, P., "The "xml2rfc" Version 3 Vocabulary", RFC 7991, DOI 10.17487/RFC7991, November 2016, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7991>. [UNICODE-CHART] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard",2014-present,<http://www.unicode.org/charts>. [UNICODE-NORM] The Unicode Consortium, "Unicode Standard Annex #15: Unicode Normalization Forms", 2016, <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr15/>. [UnicodeCurrent] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard",2014-present,<http://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/>.Appendix A.IAB Members at the Time of Approval The IAB members at the time this memo was approved were (in alphabetical order): Jari Arkko Ralph Droms Ted Hardie Joe Hildebrand Russ Housley Lee Howard Erik Nordmark Robert Sparks Andrew Sullivan Dave Thaler Martin Thomson Brian Trammell Suzanne Woolf Acknowledgements With many thanks to the members of the IAB i18nprogram andprogram. Also, many thanks to the RFC Format DesignTeam.Team for their efforts in making this transition successful: Nevil Brownlee (ISE), Tony Hansen, Joe Hildebrand, Paul Hoffman, Ted Lemon, Julian Reschke, Adam Roach, Alice Russo, Robert Sparks (Tools Team liaison), and Dave Thaler. Author's Address Heather Flanagan (editor) RFC Editor Email: rse@rfc-editor.org URI: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2647-2220