RFC 2978, "IANA Charset Registration Procedures", October 2000

Errata ID: 6265
Status: Held for Document Update
Type: Technical
Publication Format(s) : TEXT
Reported By: John Klensin
Date Reported: 2020-08-25
Held for Document Update by: Barry Leiba
Date Held: 2020-08-25

Section 3.1 says:

Proposed charsets are not formally registered and must not be used; the "x-" prefix specified in RFC 2045 can be used until registration is complete.

It should say:

Proposed charsets are not formally registered and must not be used.

Notes:

This section contains a recommendation for temporary use of charset names with an "X-" prefix. Given the problems those have caused and the general prohibition in RFC 6648, probably that provision should be considered updated and removed by 6648. Given that the review period is only two weeks, it would seem that there is little reason for for having proposed charsets floating around anyway.

Comment: Despite Alexey's 2018 comment on erratum 5433, perhaps it is time to create a revised document, not only to incorporate the syntax corrections of prior errata and to get rid of the "X-" advice, but to put in some text that actively discourages new registrations and uses of charsets that are not based on Unicode.

===== Verifier notes =====
This was not incorrect when the RFC was published, so it doesn't fit into "errata". That said, John is correct that (1) we should consider that BCP 178 has changed this as noted, and (2) we probably should do a document update. I am, therefore, marking this as "held for document update".

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