Re: Cgi Conversion

[web400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> Thanks for the input. I am using the QtmhRdStin api to parse the
> query_string. Yes, the conversion mode was a typo. My config says
> %%EBCDIC/MIXED%%.

QtmhRdStin does not parse anything.  It just reads the standard input 
stream of the program.

The reason that characters are encoded is so that they're not confused 
with delimiters.  If QtmhRdStin converted them from %xx to actual 
characters, you would no longer be able to tell the difference between the 
delimiters and the encoded characters.

For example, consider a form that asks who to ship a package to.  It'd 
have a field for the ship-to name and the city.  In the "name" field, you 
key "John & Mary".  In the city field, you key "Chicago".  This is what 
gets sent from the browser to the HTTP server:

name=John+%26+Mary&City=Chicago

If the HTTP server (Apache or anything else) would convert the %26 to the 
& character, you'd have this:

 name=John & Mary&City=Chicago

Now you have a problem.  & is supposed to be a delimiter that separates 
one field from another!  Notice that there's a & between the value of the 
"name" field and the "City" field.  That's what & is for... it's a 
separator.  If you change %26 to &, now "Mary" appears to be a field by 
itself.

You can only decode the hex values AFTER you've parsed it into fields and 
values.  Therefore, it's not possible for QtmhRdStin() to do it!