Another IE bug

[hugme]

Ok, this is getting fucking ridiculous!!

yes... ANOTHER bug in IE that's affecting my code

in html you can put &REG and it will convert it to a 'registered' symbol (an R in a circle)

well, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has decided to use the same text parser the window where you type your URL. The problem is that variables are separated by an & symbol... meaning if lets say you have the vairable REG_PROC it will screw it up and destroy your url....

here is a great little FUCK YOU for you microsoft!!

Comments

[dwivian]

Offically, you put in ®, as &reg isn't supposed to do anything on its own. This is part of the SGML standard, as I recall.

And, in preview (and accidental posting of this comment), I discovered it's broken in the forms and standard code, too. This is part of ISO8879.

I'm wondering if © © is broken, too?

[dwivian]

Ah.... apparently you can use semi ";" to separate variables in URIs, too. Dunno if that helps or not.

[hugs.livejournal.com]

actually you can't...

the variables go into the form. They are then dropped into the URL and separated by &'s as per the RFC for how forms work....there isn't a way I can change that.

[dwivian]

I wrote perl and cgi scripts that used the ; divider. Never did a lot with forms that weren't controlled from my code. That's how I changed that! RFC allows for it, of course. But, if you're doing inline forms, then I guess you've got limits that I didn't.

Still, the issue was: if the parser is going to interpret &reg as ®, you're screwed. And, the question is, does it equally convert &copy as ©, and thus generate the same error for variables with copy in the name?

[bitmap.livejournal.com]

A quick test show this affects &reg, &copy, &amp, and &quot, maybe more.
All are impropperly interpreted even without the trailing semi-colon.

[dwivian]

Lovely. Good testing!

So.... the question remains -- is this a bug, or are variables beginning with names in the SGML sequence illegal to use?