On Sun, Jul 01 2012, Ethan <ethan.glasser.camp@gmail.com> wrote: >> I wonder if the following would be practical: use // as the field >> separator: >> >> e.g. mbox://filename//start_of_message+length >> >> I think 2 consecutive slashes // is about the only thing we can assume >> is not in the path or filename. Since it is not in the filename I think >> parsing should be trivial (thus avoiding the extra library). >> > > Can you explain what you mean when you say that two consecutive slashes > can't appear in a URL? Ordinary filesystem paths can contain them, and so > can file: URLs. (I just looked up file:///home/ethan///////tmp and Firefox > handled that OK.) Does firefox resolve this as /home/ethan/tmp, or /home/ethan///////tmp? For me iceweasel resolves it as /home/jrollins/tmp. I think this is might be the behavior to which Mark is referring. jamie.