RFC 2130 (rfc2130) - Page 3 of 31

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

RFC 2130             Character Set Workshop Report            April 1997


   recommendations to the IAB, IANA, and the IESG for furthering the
   integration of  this framework into text transmission protocols.

   The architectural model specifies 7 layers, of which only three are
   required for on-the-wire transmission. The Coded Character Set is a
   mapping from a set of abstract characters to a set of integers. The
   Character Encoding Scheme is a mapping from a Coded Character Set (or
   several) to a set of octets. The Transfer Encoding Syntax is a
   transformation applied to data which has been encoded using a
   Character Encoding Scheme to allow it to be transmitted. These layers
   should be specified in a transmitted text stream by using the MIME
   encoding mechanisms.

   This report recommends the use of ISO 10646 as the default Coded
   Character Set, and UTF-8 as the default Character Encoding Scheme in
   the creation of new protocols or new version of old protocols which
   transmit text. These defaults do not deprecate the use of other
   character sets when and where they are needed; they are simply
   intended to provide guidance and a specification for
   interoperability.

1:  Introduction

   This is the report of an IAB-sponsored invitational workshop on the
   use of Character Sets on the Internet, held 29 February - 1 March
   1996 at Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in Marina del Rey,
   California.  In addition, this report covers the discussion on the
   mailing list up to and slightly beyond the workshop itself.  The
   goals of this workshop were to provide guidance to the IAB and the
   IETF about the use of character sets on the Internet, and if possible
   a common framework for interoperability between the many character
   sets in use there.  Both goals were achieved.

2:  Character sets on the Internet - the problem

   The term 'character set' is typically applied to the contents of a
   wide variety of text transmission and display protocols used on the
   Internet.  Because the term is used to mean different things,
   confusion has arisen.  For example, the MIME registry of character
   sets [MIME] contains items that may differ greatly in their
   applicability and semantics in various Internet protocols.

   In addition, there is a vast profusion of different text encoding
   schemes in use on the Internet.  This per se is not a problem; each
   scheme has evolved to meet real needs.  However, information
   applications such as mail, directories, and the World Wide Web have
   each developed different techniques for dealing with the growing
   number of schemes.  A robust information architecture for the



Weider, et. al.              Informational