Re: URL parsing and IPv6 addresses

Kim wrote:
> 
> My inclination is still to use a second "::" to separate the port

I don't know.  Looks like too many colons to me.  Why can't we just
pick another character to separate the port number?

Like, say, a comma.

Let's see.  The allowable non-alphanumeric characters in URLs are
(from RFC 1738)

    +  -  =  .  _  /  *      (  )  ,  @  '  $  :  ;  &  !  ?

... i believe.  So right away we know [] is bad.

> (It may just be me, but I
> don't like the idea of common shell characters being used in URL's.

I can certainly empathize with that.   *.();&!?'$ all do something
to the shell, and / is no good, so that leaves

    +  -  =  .  _  ,  @  :

If we want to avoid _ and -, which are already used in hostnames,
and . and : for IP addresses, that leaves

    +  =  ,  @

I think any of these four characters would work fine.  We might
want to shy away from the @ which is already used to separate
usernames in ftp URLs, but i don't see anything wrong with the
other three.  My suggestion is the comma, only because + and =
conjure up mathematical analogies that don't fit with the idea
of a port number.

How about it?


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