Re: Percent encoding

I think we need to prioritize our needs, and then based on that prioritization decide whether to include quotes for id/track, when to do percent decoding, etc.

Here's a list of issues that I can come up with (unprioritized):

a. The MF syntax for queries and fragments should be identical
b. The MF syntax should be unambiguous
c.  The MF syntax should allow any UTF-8 character in track or id names
d. The MF syntax should adhere to applicable formal standards
e. The MF syntax should adhere to de-facto usage of queries and fragments
f. The MF syntax should be as concise as possible, with no unneeded grammatical fluff

Are there any issues I miss?

I think my current prioritizing would have b/c/d highest priority, then a, then e, then f.

But: this still leaves the question "what is de-facto usage". I typed in the youtube URL on a whim last week, but tonight I've tried a couple of other sites, and so far it seems that YouTube is the only major site I have come across that seems to do percent-decoding very early in the process. And even here it is very weird: using %26 as the argument separator *only* works if you also specify %3f as the query separator. If you use '?' then the %26 becomes an ampersand inside the search string.
--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma Goldman

Received on Saturday, 27 February 2010 21:53:05 UTC