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Re: lynx-dev dev.24 Archive link runaround


From: Philip Webb
Subject: Re: lynx-dev dev.24 Archive link runaround
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 13:26:53 -0400 (EDT)

990426 Klaus Weide wrote: 
> 990425 Philip Webb wrote:
>> Flora has demonstrated only that it wants to waste clients' time:
> Applause to them for making people aware that one URL is the right one
> (the one people probably want to visit) while the other isn't.

since the URLs don't have different content, `right' is hardly meaningful.

> If it helps prevent unnecessary redirections for everybody accessing
> the lynx-dev archives through the Lynx Help Page, it has served its purpose.

sorry, but aren't servers intelligent enough to know
that if  a.b.c/d  isn't a document it has available,
the client almost certainly wanted  a.b.c/d/ 
& at least to add the  /  to see if that does find a document?
 
>>   Could not find: /lynx-dev
>>   I could not find the file you were looking for.
>>   Did you by chance mean: [1]/lynx-dev/
>>   I brought you to the home page as a good place to start looking.
> And what's the URL of the page you are quoting here?

 http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev , according to the Lynx Information Page,
BUT that's not always accurate, as came out last week.
apart from the prissy introduction, the content of the document is
the same as what you get if you goto  http://www.flora.org/ ,
ie a long list of users like the `vegetarian cycling club'
& including  [20] Lynx Developers .  you get a similar page
if you goto  http://www.flora.org/wrongurl/  or  -/wrongurl.html ;
in all cases, there is a `404 Not Found' message;
these are not different documents, but the same over-helpful redirection.
Flora could much more helpfully have said to itself:
`can't find  lynx-dev , but let's look for  lynx-dev/ :
aha! there it is! that's almost certainly what they wanted'
& return it to the client instead of wasting everyone's time & bandwidth.
                                  
>> since it can't find  /lynx-dev , that URL doesn't even exist,
>> so it can't have different content (it doesn't have content period).
> It is content, no matter whether you regard it as meaningful or not.

no, see above: if you leave out the final  /  you are redirected
to the same document with a different suggested URL filled in for you.
 
> instead of 'content', you now talk about '[different] meaningful content'.
> How's a program to tell the difference?

i want to know whether the difference between  a.b.c/d  &  a.b.c/d/
ever represents different documents a/a pedantic servers:
LV offered an example, but see my reply to him.
 
> And if a program tries to be clever in guessing what's meaningful,
> you get things like <http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/99-04-09#msie>
> apparently some webmasters are not happy with that kind of 'friendly',
> or it wouldn't be listed under "Problems with MSIE 5".

that's got nothing to do with this discussion:
MSIE 5 is there acting as a browser, not a server,
& is substituting its own messages for those of the server.

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,  Philip Webb : address@hidden
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|  Centre for Urban & Community Studies
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'  University of Toronto

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