sub normalize_path {
  my ( $path ) = @_ ;
  return '' unless $path;
  # ensure that multiple %HH encoded stuff is decoded completely (known hack)
  1 while $path =~ s/%([0-9a-fA-F]{2})/chr hex $1/ge;
  # get rid of those damn back slashes
  $path =~ s!\\+!/!g;
  # I don't see the need for many more chars than these
  # as the stated purpose is docs, not cgi ?;&= are
  # pointless, espacially as I just destroyed the query
  # string (potentially) if these are encoded with %HH
  $path =~ s![^\w \Q-?&;:,=./#\E]!!g;
  # fix ../ we don't have any \ left to fool us
  $path =~ s!\.\.?/!!g;
  # trim leading whitespace
  $path =~ s/^\s+//g;
  # allow single spaces for say Documents and Settings
  $path =~ s/ +/ /g;
  return  $path ;
}