Subject: URL problema

From: Nancy McGough <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 1999 21:09:02 -0400 (EDT)

I just posted a message with a valid URL to comp.mail.pine, but when I
view the message in Pine only part of the URL is turned into a link.
Since it's a valid URL, it would be nice if it worked.

Thanks,
N

  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
  Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 00:39:57 GMT
  Subject: Re: newsgroups with pine? -- Addition
  
  [ deleted ]
  
   http://www.dejanews.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=434087592

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©Nancy McGough           http://www.ii.com           Infinite Ink
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From: Mike Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 20:49:05 -0500 (CDT)

> Since it's a valid URL, it would be nice if it worked.

I've had the same problem--many times.  Shouldn't the URL always
continue until a space or newline is reached?  Brackets shouldn't mark
the end.  --Mike

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From: Nancy McGough <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 09:18:34 -0400 (EDT)

> continue until a space or newline is reached?  Brackets shouldn't mark

Unfortunately the algorithm for delimiting a URL can't be that simple.
Some people surround URLs with angle brackets and if a URL is in a
sentence, it is sometimes followed immediately by a period or comma. 
It seems to me that the algorithm should look something like this:

URL begins at "protocol://" (where protocol is http, mailto, imap, 
 ftp, news, gopher, etc.)
Move to the right until you hit a space or end of line
Now move back from the suspected end of URL and see if there are
 any characters that URLs can't (or rarely) end with such as > . , ]
Remove any trailing character that a URL shouldn't end with

I'm sure it's a harder problem to solve than this though. Maybe some
day there will be a standard way to put URLs in messages (hah!).

-- 
For Pine info & links, see www.ii.com/internet/messaging/pine/
 
©Nancy McGough          http://www.ii.com          Infinite Ink
--= Sent via PINE: Power Internet News & Email for Win/Unix =--

---

From: Mike Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 09:42:48 -0500 (CDT)

> sentence, it is sometimes followed immediately by a period or comma. 

I agree.  People should avoid doing that.  There is no way to deal
with that problem except to assume that the trailing period or comma
is not part of the URL (because it almost always was added by the
author of the message).  When a URL does end with a period, there will
be nothing we can do about it.

> URL begins at "protocol://" (where protocol is http, mailto, imap, 

But we have to deal with the mailto: and news: that don't have // in
them.  It is tricky!

> Remove any trailing character that a URL shouldn't end with

I see that this is a tricky problem.  They must not have written it
this way though because some URLs are chopped in half.  I hope they
are taking note of your suggestion.  If most of the URL is sent to the
browser, I can add the rest.  If it's chopped in half, I have to go
back and copy the other half and then paste it in.  So I hope they
take you up on this.

Thanks,

Mike

-- 
Michael B. Miller
University of Missouri--Columbia
http://taxa.psyc.missouri.edu/~mbmiller/