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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=3>How about the case
when there are . or .. components in the absolute path part of an
URL?<br>
Including when those which are trailing without a slash.<br>
E.g. Should
<a href="http://example.org/users/joe" eudora="autourl">
http://example.org/users/joe</a> and
<a href="http://example.org/users/joe" eudora="autourl">
http://example.org/users/foo/../joe</a> be the same?<br>
What about
<a href="http://alice.example.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://alice.example.com/</a> vs
<a href="http://alice.example.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://alice.example.com/</a>.<br>
</blockquote><br>
Nothing should be done in that case. Those pairs of URLs aren't the
same, even if some servers will provide the same content for them.
Just because the path section of a URL looks like a Unix path doesn't
mean that it is or should be treated as a Unix
path.</font></blockquote><br>
I very much agree with this.<br><br>
We need a solid answer to the problem posed (for which real examples have
already surfaced). The two main candidates are the rewriting rules
we are working on and the strict rule. Rewriting may actually be
more robust in practice, since URL changes may be going on in libraries,
without implementers being aware of the changes. <br><br>
But, if we decide to rewrite, we should be strict about that, too.
The rules for treating different URLs as equivalent should be based only
on what comes from the standards. (Example: 80 is the default HTTP port,
so
<a href="http://alice.example.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://alice.example.com/</a> is equivalent to
http://alice.example.com:80/ but http://alice.example.com/ is
NOT equivalent to http://alice.example.com/. (You notice that
Eudora has again decided that the period is not part of the URL.
That's a case that we need to keep in mind.))<br><br>
Cordially, Joaquin<br><br>
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