public static String removeStartingCharacters(String text, char ch) {
        int idx = 0;
        while (text.charAt(idx) == ch) {
            idx++;
        }
        if (idx > 0) {
            return text.substring(idx);
        }
        return text;
    }
@Test
    public void testRemoveInitialCharacters() {
        assertEquals("foo", StringHelper.removeStartingCharacters("foo", '/'));
        assertEquals("foo", StringHelper.removeStartingCharacters("/foo", '/'));
        assertEquals("foo", StringHelper.removeStartingCharacters("//foo", '/'));
    }