In windows run this:
In Windows Server 2016 IIS I did exactly that before I posted. There are no backslashes (\). It works exactly as expected. with forward slashes (/).
Based on this, the function is pointless, as it does nothing whatsoever.
In cases where PHP is allowed to run directly off the local filesystem (a horrific idea)
It's not just horrific, it is wrong and shouldn't be done and further makes the function pointless.
Why in the world are you going to develop an app that lets people do things wrong. If you are going to code to account for every wrong thing that consumers of your app may do you will end up with a monstrosity of spaghetti code.
Based on the previous I am declaring the function "bloat" which should be removed. There is just no valid reason for it.
I imagine you know why we ditch the URIencodes.
I would like to hear what you have to say about this.