query re IPv6 URL format

[Brian E Carpenter]

The colons break both most existing URL parsers and the BNF
describing URLs. Eliminating the :: does not fix it. Believe me. 
I spent an hour on the BNF.

  Brian

>- Bob Hinden said:
> 
> Brian,
> 
> >If that was the decision then we need to codify it and tell
> >the world. I could live with it, if the URL parsers can handle
> >it. I'll check that with the URL guys.
> >
> 
> Maybe I am missing something, but...
> 
> The IPv4 syntax is:
> 
> 	http://111.222.333.444/~bc
> 
> It would seem to me that while
> 
> 	http://aaaa:bbbb::cccc:dddd/~bc
> 
> has multiple ":"'s in it, given left to right parsing, I don't see anything
> ambiguous.  The first thing after the "//" is either a DNS name, IPv4
> address, or an IPv6 address.  If the current parsers can distinguish
> between "hursley.ibm.com" and "111.222.333.444", both of which use dots as
> separators, then could they also deal with IPv6 addresses with colons?
> 
> Why can't the parsers learn how to do this?  They need to be changed to
> handle IPv6 addresses anyway.
> 
> Bob
> 
>