Subject: RE: Use of ";" in URL for HTTP

From: "Woodhouse, Gregory J." <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 11:44:03 -0700

It is part of a path name under VMS

ISC6A1 $ DIR ZZMDE*.DAT

Directory USR$:[USER.WOODHOUSE]

ZZMDE1.DAT;1        ZZMDE2.DAT;2        ZZMDE2_539041388.DAT;1

Total of 3 files.
ISC6A1 $ 

The number after the semicolon is the version number of the file.

===
Gregory Woodhouse  <[email-masked]>
System Design & Development
+1 510 768 6862

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Lawrence [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 9:27 AM
To: [email-masked]; Diwakar Shetty
Subject: Re: Use of ";" in URL for HTTP

9/5/2002 12:55:27 AM, Diwakar Shetty <[email-masked]> wrote:
> I could understand the use of "&" in URL for HTTP requests
>
>"&" separates the <name>=<value> pair
>
> However, what is the use of ";" in URLS for HTTP ?

Semicolon is just another valid character in the path component
of a URL - it has no special significance.  When the Web was
being invented, VMS was an important platform, and the semicolon 
was used in VMS file names, so making it a legal path name
component was important.

--
Scott Lawrence                             
  <[email-masked]>