Re: lynx-dev dev.24 Archive link runaround

[Greg Marr]

At 01:26 PM 4/26/99 , Philip Webb wrote:
>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.

There is most certainly a 'right' URL.

Say in http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/index.html there is a link to
"about-lynx.html".

If you entered the URL http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/, and then
selected
that link, lynx would ask for
http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/about-lynx.html.

Now say you entered the URL http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev, and the
server didn't find a file called lynx-dev, but did find a directory
called lynx-dev, and so sent back the contents of index.html in that
lynx-dev directory.  As far as lynx knows, you are looking at
http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev, so when you select that link, it will
ask
for http://www.flora.org/about-lynx.html instead of
http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/about-lynx.html.

What the server can do in this situation, when you've entered an
*invalid* URL, is return a Moved Permanently status message redirecting
you to http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/.  Lynx will then disconnect from
the server, reconnect to the same server, and ask for that URL.  Now,
when it gets the page, it knows how to properly handle relative URLs.

>> 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?

If they are configured to do so, they will.  If they are not, they
won't.

>> 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.

Here's why they are different:

http://www.perl.com/CPAN

is a file that gives you a list of all the CPAN servers, and has a CGI
backend that allows you to select the one you want to use when
accessing the CPAN.

http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ and
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/blah/blah/blah.html

redirect you to a server within the CPAN network that seems to be the
best choice for you at the time.  In the case of the second URL, it
also brings you to the location of blah/blah/blah.html within that
server's CPAN archive.

-- 
Greg Marr
address@hidden
"We thought you were dead." 
"I was, but I'm better now." - Sheridan, "The Summoning"