Re: When is percent-encoding required.

> I have just tested to write that line in IE8 and it works fine:

I would argue that IE8 *doesn't* work fine.

> ARTICLE <foo@bar.!#$%&'*+/=?^`{|}.example> is sent.
>
> However, with Firefox 3.5.6, the Windows file explorer or
> Windows Mail (a newsreader), it fails:
>
> ARTICLE <foo@bar.!%23$%25&'*+%2F=%3F%5E%60%7B%7C%7D.example>
>
> is sent.

I consider that to be correct behavior.

>> However, I believe virtually all URI parsers will interpret
>> "news:foo@bar.!%23$%25&'*+%2F=%3F^`{|}.example" as intended.
>
> Works fine in IE8 but Firefox, the Windows file explorer
> and Windows Mail still re-encode it:

When I said "URI parsers" I specifically meant the parser itself — as
in, the parser won't misinterpret some component as something other
than what it is, and the value of all components will be available to
the application.  As Martin said, those characters aren't really
supposed to show up in a URI and have to be encoded.  Browsers that
figure out what you meant and encode the URI before sending it are
following Postel's law and, in my opinion, doing the right thing.

-Bob

Received on Saturday, 9 January 2010 18:15:49 UTC