Searching on Google I found the question "Java :
File.toURI().toURL() on Windows file" with an accepted answer
that contains the unfortunate misunderstanding that RFC3986
forbids "file" URIs with an empty host component (e.g. that
file:///path is an illegal URI):  Since file URIs have no
authority segment, they're forbidden from starting with //.  I
think users expect that the information in an accepted, up-voted
answer on Stack Overflow is true. If accepted, up-voted answers,
which will likely be ranked high on Google and considered
authoritative by many, contain false information it will
misinform people and risk undermining the credibility of Stack
Overflow.  I thought that fixing this information bug would
improve the quality of information found in the internet ever so
slightly, perhaps preventing future bugs from being introduced
due to a wrong understanding of URIs, so I tried to fix it, but
the fix was rejected. Maybe because it changes the meaning of
the accepted answer.  So I guess I went about it t