You are right about the importance of URI and HTML encoding. For this reason, it is a good idea to use the semicolon as the parameter separator instead of the ampersand. Using a semicolon means that URL attributes don't need HTML entity encoding. The problem characters will be caught by the URI encoding. CGI.pm parses semicolons. It will use semicolons if the $USE_PARAM_SEMICOLONS is defined. Some homegrown CGI parsers might not handle them but people should avoid those in any case. 
<A HREF="/my/cgi?gun=Smith+%26+Wesson;drink=Jack+Daniels">

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In reply to Re: &bull;Re: CGI : How to put an "&" into a GET-parameter by Anonymous Monk
in thread CGI : How to put an "&" into a GET-parameter by CountZero

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