RFC 2130 (rfc2130) - Page 2 of 31

The Report of the IAB Character Set Workshop held 29 February - 1 March, 1996

RFC 2130             Character Set Workshop Report            April 1997


   3.3:  Determining which values of CCS, CES, and TES are used.....   9
   3.4:  Recommended Defaults.......................................  10
   3.5:  Guidelines for conversions between coded character sets....  13
   4:    Presentation issues........................................  14
   5:    Open issues................................................  14
   5.1:  Language tags..............................................  15
   5.2:  Public identifiers.........................................  16
   5.3:  Bi-directionality..........................................  16
   6:    Security Considerations....................................  16
   7:    Conclusions................................................  16
   8:    Recommendations............................................  17
   8.1:  To the IAB.................................................  17
   8.2:  For new Internet protocols.................................  18
   8.3:  For registration of new character sets.....................  18
   Appendix A: List of protocols affected by character set issues...  20
   Appendix B: Acronyms.............................................  23
   Appendix C: Glossary.............................................  24
   Appendix D: References...........................................  25
   Appendix E: Recommended reading..................................  27
   Appendix F: Workshop attendee list...............................  29
   Appendix G: Authors' Addresses...................................  30

Abstract

   This report details the conclusions of an IAB-sponsored invitational
   workshop held 29 February  - 1 March, 1996, to discuss the use of
   character sets on the Internet.  It motivates the need to have
   character set handling in Internet protocols which transmit text,
   provides a conceptual framework for specifying character sets,
   recommends the use of MIME tagging for transmitted text, recommends a
   default character set *without* stating that there is no need for
   other character sets, and makes a series of recommendations to the
   IAB, IANA, and the IESG for furthering the integration of the
   character set framework into text transmission protocols.

0: Executive summary

   The term 'Character Set' means many things to many people. Even the
   MIME registry of character sets registers items that have great
   differences in semantics and applicability. This workshop provides
   guidance to the IAB and IETF about the use of character sets on the
   Internet and provides a common framework for interoperability between
   the many characters in use there.

   The framework consists of four components: an architecture model,
   which specifies components necessary for on-the-wire transmission of
   text; recommendations for tagging transmitted (and stored) text;
   recommended defaults for each level of the model; and a set of



Weider, et. al.              Informational