[Edit: Update. The idea is based on a wrong notion. It turns out that the address line gets URL encoded only if copied from the first letter. Starting from the second letter it leaves the message as is. Following is the orignal text of the idea.]

If you choose only the Greek or Arabic or Hebrew or Russian part of the URL and copy it you get it in the original language.

But if you choose the whole URL, you get an encoded page. https://moc.werbeh.www/s? =%D7%A1%D7%AA%D7%9D + %D7%93%D7%95%D7%92%D7%9E%D7%90

So if you copy the first part http://moc.werbeh.www/s?= and only then copy the HB:STM_DFGMA:BH and add it to your url you get a readable message if you know how to read that language.

MUC to the rescue! When you ctrl v or right click the address bar and press copy, it checks if there is a url protocol such as http:// or https:// and if so it starts copying until it reaches a letter with a char value that is above the English set (and will be url-encoded) It then marks from that section to the end of the line, and copies it in a second stage, adding it to the first copied text in the clipboard.
-- pashute, Jul 15 2020

HB:STM DGMA:BH https://www.google....5%D7%92%D7%9E%D7%90
[pashute, Jul 15 2020]

It seems there's no loss of information in the existing copy/paste operation - only an unsatisfactory representation of the information at the "paste" end.

What you're looking for, it seems, is a destination application which will display all the gubbins with the percent signs in the same way that your browser's address bar presents it.

I doubt that you'll get a universal, application-independent solution, because different applications may have their own funny encodings, magic strings, escape sequences, etc.
-- pertinax, Jul 16 2020


Wonder why they didn't go with " "s.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 16 2020


Its the same for all languages. Just go to google translate, translate into greek and then turn it the other way copy the address bar and paste.

I don't think its on the "paste side" because the clipboard app doesn't know what the contents are or where its pasting to. It only happens when copying the full address from the address bar, so it seems to be a function of the address bar itself.
-- pashute, Jul 17 2020


I have a feeling that it is because the URL is not -actually- using a broad character set, but the browser address bar is actively looking for escape-codes in the url so that it can render them in an expanded character set.
-- pocmloc, Jul 17 2020


Clearly we need a volunteer to spelunk into the source code of Firefox and find out what it's really up to.

Steady on, don't all shout at once ...
-- pertinax, Jul 18 2020


First I found that simply eliminating the first letter from the address line gives me the rest of the original Hebrew with no encoding. So I can start with copying ttps://.... and simply add an h...

Then I tried to use procmon to find the windows commands envoked but couldn't find how to filter them down to show me what I'm looking for.

So I went to the mozilla codebase and found it: widget / gtk / nsClipboard.cpp

line 686: void ConvertHTMLtoUCS2 (const char* data, int32_t dataLength,
687 char16_t** unicodeData, int32_t& outUnicodeLen) {


701 // app which use "text/html" to copy&paste
702 // get the decoder
703 auto encoding =
Encoding :: ForLabelNoReplacement( charset);
704 if (!encoding) { ...
-- pashute, Aug 06 2020


[pashute], I salute you.

I had no idea anyone would actually take up my suggestion.

I should be more careful what I post here; someone could get hurt!
-- pertinax, Aug 07 2020



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