Libidn README -- Important introductory notes.
Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 Simon Josefsson
See the end for copying conditions.

GNU Libidn is an implementation of the Stringprep, Nameprep, Punycode
and IDNA specifications, licensed under the LGPL.  See ANNOUNCE for an
overview, and libidn.{info,ps,pdf} for the manual.

Things left to do below.  If you like to start working on anything,
please let me know so work duplication can be avoided.

  - Optimize stringprep, the table searching is slow (but does it
    matter?).  Optimize for speed?  The stringprep tables can be
    compressed _alot_ (most map entries are simply zeroes).
  - Port applications to use libidn.
  - Include more stringprep profiles.
  - Add IDNA tools
  - Rename package?  Stringprep useful outside of IDN.  Separating
    into libstringprep + libidn was considered, but libidn would
    be so small it would be wasteful to create it.  libunicodenames?

Anticipated Frequently Asked Questions:

Q#1: Why doesn't Libidn use a separate library for the Unicode
     operations?

A#1: Separate libraries (Glib, QT, libiconv) seldom mark the Unicode
     tables with the corresponding Unicode version they implement, nor
     do they provide a interface where a specific version can be
     requested.  This violates the stringprep specification which
     requires that a specific version is used.  Also, some of these
     third party libraries depend on non-portable behavior
     (e.g. threads).

Q#2: Why do Libidn include several stringprep profiles? They waste space!

A#2: The stringprep profiles included are derived from the generic
     stringprep tables, and doesn't waste more than say a few hundred
     bytes (see profiles.c).  The Unicode normalization tables and the
     generic stringprep tables are roughly equivalent in size,
     although the latter tables can surely be compressed much further.

Q#3: I thought GNU was encouraging libraries to be licensed under the GPL?

A#3: The reasoning for this was for libraries that provide unique
     functionality to encourage more free programs.  Since there are
     several IDN libraries out there, using the GPL for Libidn would
     only encourage people not to use Libidn which would not help the
     spread of free software.

Q#4: How do I add a new stringprep profile?

A#4: Add the profile definition to profiles.c, create a new
     stringprep_PROFILENAME.h header file, and add it to
     Makefile.am. For the texinfo documentation document the header in
     libidn.texi and for the GTK-DOC manual, add it to
     reference/libidn-docs.sgml and document the header definitions in
     reference/dummy.c.  If you want to add self tests, include the
     header file in internal.h and add the self tests (easiest through
     tst_stringprep.c).  Mention it in NEWS.

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