Description:
------------
Since register_globals has been removed in PHP 5.4.0 there should be no reason other than legacy why input variables ($_POST, $_GET, $_FILES, $_COOKIE, $_REQUEST) can not have keys containing following characters

chr(32) ( ) (space)
chr(46) (.) (dot)

Documentation states that only . is changed to _ but same goes for above characters.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.external.php

Test script:
---------------
<form method="POST">
<input type="text" name="foo bar" value="spaced" />
<input type="text" name="foo.bar" value="dotted" />
<input type="submit" value="send" />
</form>

<?php

if(isset($_POST))
{
  print_r($_POST);
}

?>

Expected:
array(
  "foo bar"=>'spaced',
  "foo.bar"=>'dotted'
);

Actual result:
array(
  "foo_bar"=>'dotted'
);