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I was posting an answer to a Java question and I noticed that all the links containing a space don't work. For example http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#replaceFirst(java.lang.String, java.lang.String) or if you try to use the button : [replaceFirst][1]

I know I can escape the faulty characters, but it will maybe be a good idea that this will be done automatically when inserting a link with the button. And I doubt all users of none-programming related StackExchange site knows about character escaping.

[1]: http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#replaceFirst(java.lang.String, java.lang.String)

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AS Nanne says

It would make the interface a lot more complicated, with it doing stuff you might not expect.
For instance, what would be the separator? How would the system see the difference?

It might be difficult for the system to spot the difference but you can always make the link work by replacing the space character by %20.

And as you said

And I doubt all users of none-programming related StackExchange site knows about character escaping.

The help can include the description about using space in a hyperlink in the Advanced Links part.

Your link works fine when you replace space character by %20

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It would make the interface a lot more complicated, with it doing stuff you might not expect. For instance, what would be the separator? How would the system see the difference between this

http://domain.com/link with space

and

http://domain.com/normal_link without space

Where you propose in the first case you get a link for the complete sentence, but in the last case you would want to stop at "normal_link".

You could introduce it only for the reference [1] type things, but then it would react differently then in-line links, which feels counter-intuitive.

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    I'm well aware of the parsing problems, but even if it's counter-intuitive, as a user I assume that a link I'm entering in the dialog when using the button should work as is. Links in the normal text flow are another problem.
    – krtek
    Mar 5, 2011 at 11:12
  • But the input should still know the difference, so a seperator should still be introduced, because the button does nothing more then add the formatted link to your input-box. On the positive side: there is a seperatory like that in markdown allready (the '<' for links). daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#link . Sadly, it doesn't support faulty URLs
    – Nanne
    Mar 5, 2011 at 11:17

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