Percent encoding normalization v. mapping URIs to IRIs

Given something that is both a URI and an IRI that contains a
pct-encoded unreserved character, such as http://example.com/%41, you
may apply percent-encoding normalization to end up with
http://example.com/A, however, this MUST only be used for local
comparison (currently section 5.3.2.3) and not passed along anywhere
else. However, if you follow the steps for converting the URI to an IRI
you will likewise end up with http://example.com/A, but with no such
restriction on use of the converted string.

As far as I can tell, this is an effective contradiction in the spec, as
either converting pct-encoded unreserved characters matters or it does
not. If I really wanted to circumvent the restriction on pct-encoding
normalization, I could just convert the URI to an IRI and back again, a
procedure that would effectively do the same.

-- 
Geoffrey Sneddon — Opera Software
<http://gsnedders.com/>
<http://www.opera.com/>

Received on Wednesday, 2 December 2009 09:08:20 UTC