Re: UTF-8/T.61 API Proposal

[John Kristian <kristian@netscape.com>]

How will client software know which attributes are character strings, and
which aren't?  It would be bad to apply a charset conversion algorithm to a
value that isn't a character string, such as a certificate or a photo.  The
necessary information can be read (via LDAP) from a subschema subentry.  But
LDAP v2 servers aren't required to publish this information, and often don't.

Design for modular addition of a new charset (in this case, algorithms to
convert between a new charset and UTF-8).  Conversion algorithms are very much
a matter of local preference.  And there is far too much conversion software
in use to attempt to collect it all into one library.