UTS #46, Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing, Version 6.1 Released

*Mountain View, CA, USA -- February 1, 2010 --* The new version of
Unicode Technical Standard #46,/Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing/
<http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr46/> has been released, updating to
Unicode Version 6.1
<http://unicode-inc.blogspot.com/2012/01/announcing-unicode-standard-version-61.html>.
It adds support for *528* additional characters in internationalized
domain names (IDN).

The specification provides two main features for use with the
internationalized domain names specification released in August 2010
(IDNA2008):

   1. A comprehensive mapping to reflect user expectations for casing
      and other variants of domain names. This mapping is allowed by
      IDNA2008, and follows the same principles as in the previous
      version of that specification (IDNA2003). It thus provides users
      consistency between old and new versions.
   2. A compatibility mechanism that supports internationalized domain
      names valid under the IDNA2003 specification and the IDNA2008
      specification. This second feature allows browsers, search
      engines, and other clients to handle both old and new domain names
      during the transitional period until registries update their rules
      to follow IDNA2008.

UTS #46 supplies normative data tables that are synchronized with the
latest version of the Unicode Standard, allowing implementations to
update without recalculation. This new version also provides an "NV8"
flag in the data files, making it easier for implementations to disable
the compatibility mechanism.

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