Re: URLs inline

Adam C. Engst (ace@tidbits.com)
Tue, 29 Nov 1994 10:27:50 -0800

At 8:31 PM 11/22/94, Dave Taylor wrote:
>Paul Kainen talks about how easy it is in Unix to stop email and
>launch lynx to check out an http link: maybe it's just me, but I
>don't even WANT to ever see those ugly URLs in mail. I'd rather have
>something like a button on screen saying "click me" and the context
>surrounding it explains the reference. For example, if you wanted
>to learn more about my Master's research, <click me> is a lot easier
>than 'type in http://owl.trc.purdue.edu/ to your favorite Web browser'
>or 'cut and paste URL http://owl.trc.purdue.edu/', isn't it?

Well, it's pretty much public knowledge that Eudora 3.0 will have the
command-click on a URL feature to resolve it using an appropriate Internet
client (ie, don't use a Web browser to retrieve a file via FTP, it just
doesn't work as well).

I've thought about the ugliness of URLs in publications, since I have a
fair number of them in TidBITS each week, and I finally decided that the
aesthetics were worth it for the underlying information. For instance, if a
file is updated and has a new name, the URL breaks, but if you can read the
URL, it's easy to use just the directory name. Similarly if someone points
at a specific URL well down in a Web site, but I want to go to the top of
the site, I can just work with the first part of the URL.

It may be less friendly, but it's nice to be able to have access to that
information on occasion.

cheers ... -Adam

--
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Editor -- ace@tidbits.com -- info@tidbits.com
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