RFC 2277 (rfc2277) - Page 1 of 9
IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
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