# Re: Illegality of '~' in URLs

capple@master.control.att.com
Mon, 15 Jan 1996 18:51:34 -0500

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    From: capple@master.control.att.com

    Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 18:51:34 -0500

    Message-Id: <199601152351.SAA25371@master.control.att.com>

    To: uri@bunyip.com

    Subject: Re: Illegality of '~' in URLs

> From: Olle Jarnefors <ojarnef@admin.kth.se>
> To: uri@bunyip.com
> Cc: Peter Svanberg <psv@nada.kth.se>, Olle Jarnefors <ojarnef@admin.kth.se>
> Subject: Illegality of '~' in URLs
>
> 14 % of the http: URLs used in messages to the html-wg mailing
> list this month includes the character tilde, '~'. (See the list
> at the bottom of this message.) Most or all of these originate
> from the Unix operating system, I assume.
>
> RFC 1738 doesn't allow this character in http: URLs, though:
>
> > httpurl = "http://" hostport [ "/" hpath [ "?" search ]]
> > hpath = hsegment *[ "/" hsegment ]
> > hsegment = *[ uchar | ";" | ":" | "@" | "&" | "=" ]
> > uchar = unreserved | escape
> > unreserved = alpha | digit | safe | extra
> > safe = "$" | "-" | "_" | "." | "+"
> > extra = "!" | "*" | "'" | "(" | ")" | ","
>
> Would it hurt to remove this restriction on URL syntax?
> In http: URLs? In all URLs?

I think it would hurt more to enforce the restriction.

Chris Apple
AT&T Internet Services Architecture
capple@master.control.att.com

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