Monday, October 11, 1999, 10:38:05 AM, Andrew wrote:
> And why one cannot use square brackets? Is there any reason for this? Or,
> let it put another way: is there any reason why TB _does not_ distinguish
> URLs in square brackets?! I thought the URL recognition should work
> regardless the characters surrounding it.
OK, time for another "Steve takes a stab in the dark." I'm sure Alex will
be there to back me up with RFCs I've not read yet, but here goes.
I think a large part of it has to do with historical precedence. RFC822,
the lovely mail document which is still in use, defined that one of the
acceptable permutations of an email address would place the email inside the
<>s. This is why we see things like in the header of this message.
"Andrew K. Lovetski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
and
Steve Lamb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This is so there is a clear mark of where the address is when there is
more information than just the address. The program strips out everything
except what is inside the innermost <>s and uses that as the address to send
to.
How that relates back to where the convention of <>s around URLs should be
clear. Since RFC822 set a standard that data intended for the machine is
encased in <>s, subsequent technology will most likely follow that standard.
HTTP (and thus, the WWW) came after E-Mail and RFC822.
Now, some will argue with me on this point and that is their prerogative,
but I do not think that a program should go and highlight everything that
looks like a URL regardless of what characters are around it. As I've stated
quite a few times in several different threads I think that too much
automation which forces the user to use the data in a single method is just as
bad as not enough automation so the user needs to do more work.
Putting URLs out in the bare is a common practice. Encasing them in <>s
is a common convention if not an outright standard defined in some RFC I've
yet to lay eyes upon. Recognizing those two, common practice and common
convention, is all a program should do. Beyond that it starts to create
problems by making assumptions about data that may not have been intended by
the user.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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