Specific meaning attached to the word 'characters' in Authority

[nsengupta]

Referring to the URI doc here: https://github.com/eclipse-uprotocol/up-spec/blob/main/basics/uri.adoc#data-model-definition

In the section explaining Authority (2.1), the document states:

inv: authority_name.length() <= 128

Does this assume that a character is an ASCII-sized character, in other words, an octet?

I am asking because an UTF-8 encoded character stream may be longer in length, In that case, does the invariant hold?

I may be missing something obvious; in that case, please guide me to the right place for filling the gap.

[PLeVasseur]

Hi @nsengupta -- interesting question! I'd like to hear both what @stevenhartley thinks and some thoughts from @sophokles73.

Input from others is also welcome.

[sophokles73]

@nsengupta in the UUri specification we have tried to define the allowed characters that an authority may consist of. My understanding of the RFC3986 is that these characters are single-octet ASCII characters. You can use '%' encoding to include other characters, though.
Based on that, the limit on the authority's length defines the maximum number of octets (bytes).