NAME

NAME
Convert::RACE - Conversion between Unicode and RACE

SYNOPSIS
use Convert::RACE;

$domain = to_race($utf16str);
$utf16str = from_race($domain);

DESCRIPTION
This module provides functions to convert between RACE (Row-based ASCII-
Compatible Encoding) and Unicode Encodings.

RACE converts strings with internationalized characters into strings of
US-ASCII that are acceptable as host name parts in current DNS host
naming usage.

See http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-idn-race-03.txt for
more details.

FUNCTION
Following functions are provided; they are all in @EXPORT array. See the
Exporter manpage for details.

to_race($utf16)
to_race() takes UTF-16 encoding and returns RACE-encoded strings
such as 'bq--aewrcsy'.

This function throws an exception such as 'String includes no
internationalized characters', 'String too long' and 'Invalid
encoding to compress'. Exceptions are thrown with Carp::croak(), so
you can cath 'em with eval {};

from_race($domain_name)
from_race() takes 'bq--' prefixed string and returns original UTF-16
string.

This function throws an exception such as 'String not begin with bq-
-', 'Decoded string includes no internationalized characters' and '
Invalid format to decompress'. Exceptions are thrown with
Carp::croak(), so you can cath 'em with eval {};

See the Unicode::String manpage, the Unicode::Map8 manpage, the Jcode
manpage for Unicode conversions.

CLASS METHOD
Following class methods are provided to change the behaviour of
Convert::RACE.

prefix_tag()
Set and get the domain prefix tag. By default, 'bq--'.

EXAMPLES
use Jcode;
use Unicode::String 'latin1';
use Convert::RACE 'to_race';

# EUC-japanese here
$name = to_race(Jcode->new('��ܸ�','euc')->ucs2);

# or, Latin here
$name = to_race(latin1($latin_string)->utf16);

# in doubt of exception
eval { $name = to_race($utf); };
if ($@) {
warn "Can't encode to RACE: $@";
}

# change the prefix
Convert::RACE->prefix_tag('xx--');

BIG FAT CAVEAT
* This module does NOT implement Nameprep phase. See mDNkit
(http://www.nic.ad.jp/jp/research/idn/mdnkit/download/) for complete
implementations.

AUTHOR
Tatsuhiko Miyagawa <[email protected]>, with much help from Eugen
SAVIN <[email protected]>, Philip Newton <[email protected]>, Michael J
Schout <[email protected]>.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.

There comes NO WARRANTY with this module.

SEE ALSO
http://www.i-d-n.net/, http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-
idn-race-03.txt, RFC 1035, the Unicode::String manpage, the Jcode
manpage, the Convert::Base32 manpage.