Re: subetha archive URLs

Jon Scott Stevens wrote:
> Ah, but you did give mailman as an example of a system that does  
> things the way you want it to.

I'm saying mailman has cleaner URLs (i.e. "surface syntax") , which
is a separate issue from the most useful logical structure
("abstract syntax" and "semantics").

> I'm suggesting that mailman also does things incorrectly.

Yes, I think we agree that a counter per-list rather than per-month
is more flexible,

> I've built sites that end with .html yet are really heavily processed  
> PHP sites.

That is reasonable, because the data *as seen by the browser* is
html.  If URLs have extensions at all, they should be the extension
corresponding to the type sent to the browser, not the type of
something inside the server never even seen by the browser.

It's like using .emacs as a file extension because you used
emacs to create it.  Having URLs that end in .cgi or .php or .jsp
is just as wrong.

>> This article is useful, and includes various links:
>> http://www.port80software.com/support/articles/nextgenerationurls
> 
> There is some good stuff in that article, and a few glaring  
> inaccuracies, but overall it's not much new.

No, it's not at all new. In fact it's mostly generally accepted
good practice.  (See the links from the article.)

>> A URL for a thread shows links to all the messages in the thread.
>> It may optionally inline or summarize the message content in a
>> blob/forum style.  At least conceptually: for a long thread, one
>> may need multiple pages, but the primary nagivation buttons are
>> for moving within that thread.
> 
> I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not quite sure how that is any  
> different from say... this link...
> 
> http://www.subethamail.org/se/archive_msg.jsp?msgId=20280

I agree it's nice to show both the message and the thread
context in a single message, at least for a typical thread.
For a very long thread it's not ideal.  But a two-pane view
is nicer.

> Right... which is why I use and like Mail.app, however the interface  
> on gmane needs quite a bit of work to actually be enjoyable.

Agreed - but it's nicer than typical archive sites.

>> That's fine if you want to read *every* message in a thread.  But what
>> if you only want to read the message from people who usually write
>> something interesting?
> 
> Then your system should filter it for you. ala /. moderation.

That's silly.  Some mailing lists have hundreds of messages per day.
I might want to look at the archive once in a while to get a feel
for what is going on, but I want to skip around.  Others might want
to search for a thread that might answer a specific questions.  Others
will want to read an entire thread to catch up.
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/