RFC 2277 (rfc2277) - Page 1 of 9

IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages

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Network Working Group                                     H. Alvestrand
Request for Comments: 2277                                      UNINETT
BCP: 18                                                    January 1998
Category: Best Current Practice


              IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
   Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

1.  Introduction

   The Internet is international.

   With the international Internet follows an absolute requirement to
   interchange data in a multiplicity of languages, which in turn
   utilize a bewildering number of characters.

   This document is the current policies being applied by the Internet
   Engineering Steering Group (IESG) towards the standardization efforts
   in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in order to help
   Internet protocols fulfill these requirements.

   The document is very much based upon the recommendations of the IAB
   Character Set Workshop of February 29-March 1, 1996, which is
   documented in RFC 2130 [WR].  This document attempts to be concise,
   explicit and clear; people wanting more background are encouraged to
   read RFC 2130.

   The document uses the terms 'MUST', 'SHOULD' and 'MAY', and their
   negatives, in the way described in [RFC 2119].  In this case, 'the
   specification' as used by RFC 2119 refers to the processing of
   protocols being submitted to the IETF standards process.










Alvestrand               Best Current Practice
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