Louis-Eric Simard wrote: > The major distinction here should one of action-domain constraints; Exactly. > As we are limited by the fact that the shoddy name space is now > prevalent, > then context needs to be taken into account. As one types in a > URL without > specifying the underlying protocol (http:// or file://), there > should be no > ambiguity that the expected protocol is http, just as we do not naturally > expect file system requests to be carried over the web. The fix is in > filling-in missing protocol details, within logical usage > contexts, before > the request allocator gets a chance to goof it up. For the record, I have submitted complaints/requests to the coders of both IE and Netscape arguing that, for example, 'ftp.microsoft.com' should be interpreted as 'http://ftp.microsoft.com' and not 'ftp://ftp.microsoft.com' (and analogously, the brower should not try to figure out what the user meant (ESP?) but should have a consistent default). I was basically laughed at by both Microsoft and Netscape. I don't think it's unreasonable to have different operating modes where different defaults take place. For example, when acting as a 'file manager', file:// can be the default protocol. However, IMO, in ALL cases, the fully-qualified URL of the site/file you wind up at MUST be shown to the user. It is a serious error to abbreviate the displayed URL as IE does. I do not believe Netscape does this. DS
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sun Aug 12 2001 - 21:42:29 PDT