Re: Feature Request for long links

[Matthew Miller]

On Sat, Jan 06, 2018 at 09:22:48PM +, Beartooth wrote:
>   Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature 
> that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to five 
> lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate the 
> spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.
[...]
>   Could Fedora maybe go into the code, say between any browser and 
> the networking code that tells the computer to send a link, and insert 
> something to clean the link before acting on it?

First of all, this kind of change in software behavior is generally
sometime we'd avoid even if the intention is good. Too easy to
introduce bugs. It's better to work with upstreams.

But second, HTTP doesn't work this way. TCP uses a five layer model,
and the path part of the URL is part of the application layer -- which
is to say there is no central "networking code" which handles this.
Some applications _may_ share a library which implements http (maybe
they use libcurl), but most web browsers implement their own.

So, this needs to be addressed at the application level. Or you could
just use Firefox, which as you note, already does what you want.

-- 
Matthew Miller

Fedora Project Leader
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Re: Feature Request for long links

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 7 January 2018, Ed Greshko sent:
> Anyway, I don't think automatically altering a URL is a good idea. 
> At least in the way I understand the OP's feature request.

Me neither.

> I read it as the "copy/paste" function was somehow supposed to
> recognize that the destination was to be a browser and then "fix" the
> URL.  Doesn't sound very practical to me.

I think that was more the browser's parsing of text pasted into it,
making a not-too-unreasonable assumption that line-breaks pasted into
its address gadget are not intentional.

As far as I'm concerned, mail clients should recognise links as they're
entered, and not subject them to auto-line breaking (a few do).  If it
wants to wrap the display, that's another matter (separate from the
actual content).  At least copy and paste, or right-click actions,
would get the full address un-screwed-up.

I can see convenience in having browsers automatically ignore embedded
line breaks in pasted addresses (I'm sure I've seen some do that).  I
can also see that bringing its own set of problems when people copy and
paste too much, or malcontents seeing it as a way to fool people's mail
auto anti-malware scanning and try to get nitwits to visit dangerous
sites (though, to be honest, you cannot protect fools from themselves).

-- 
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 4.13.16-202.fc26.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Nov 30 15:39:32 UTC 2017 x86_64

Boilerplate:  All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted.
There is no point trying to privately email me, I only get to see
the messages posted to the mailing list.

The mindset of software designers:  You know that feature that you, and
many thousands of other users, found useful?  We removed it, because
we didn't like it.  We also hard-coded the default settings that you
keep customising.
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Re: Feature Request for long links

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sun, 2018-01-07 at 13:42 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 01/07/18 13:12, Tim wrote:
> > Allegedly, on or about 6 January 2018, Beartooth sent:
> > > Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature 
> > > that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to
> > > five lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate
> > > the spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.
> > 
> > Are you talking about links being typed into emails, or in emails
> > you're reading?  Either way, he solution would be more to do with the
> > email program not breaking a long URI into pieces (whether or not it
> > *displays* it spread across several lines).  The dreaded unintelligent
> > line wrapping methods that various mail clients use.
> > 
> > I've usually managed not too bad with those situations.  Some mail
> > clients will recognise the link is several lines long, and you can just
> > click on it anywhere.  Others may require you to highlight the whole
> > URI, and then it'll get treated as one long line.
> > 
> 
> I've had similar experience.  It seems to have gotten better over the years, 
> for me. 
> A while back it seems the MS mail clients were the biggest headache.  I 
> recall having
> to tell a friend of mine never to put a link as the first line.  If you used 
> any
> client other than the MS client you couldn't click on the link.
> 
> Anyway, I don't think automatically altering a URL is a good idea.  At least 
> in the
> way I understand the OP's feature request.  I read it as the "copy/paste" 
> function
> was somehow supposed to recognize that the destination was to be a browser 
> and then
> "fix" the URL.  Doesn't sound very practical to me.

I agree. Sounds like a recipe for unintended consequences. An
alternative would be to paste into an app or widget which sanitizes the
URL, then copy-paste from there to the browser. The widget could even
be a Perl or Shell one-liner.

poc
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Re: Feature Request for long links

[Ed Greshko]

On 01/07/18 13:12, Tim wrote:
> Allegedly, on or about 6 January 2018, Beartooth sent:
>> Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature 
>> that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to
>> five lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate
>> the spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.
> Are you talking about links being typed into emails, or in emails
> you're reading?  Either way, he solution would be more to do with the
> email program not breaking a long URI into pieces (whether or not it
> *displays* it spread across several lines).  The dreaded unintelligent
> line wrapping methods that various mail clients use.
>
> I've usually managed not too bad with those situations.  Some mail
> clients will recognise the link is several lines long, and you can just
> click on it anywhere.  Others may require you to highlight the whole
> URI, and then it'll get treated as one long line.
>
I've had similar experience.  It seems to have gotten better over the years, 
for me. 
A while back it seems the MS mail clients were the biggest headache.  I recall 
having
to tell a friend of mine never to put a link as the first line.  If you used any
client other than the MS client you couldn't click on the link.

Anyway, I don't think automatically altering a URL is a good idea.  At least in 
the
way I understand the OP's feature request.  I read it as the "copy/paste" 
function
was somehow supposed to recognize that the destination was to be a browser and 
then
"fix" the URL.  Doesn't sound very practical to me.

-- 
Fedora Users List - The place to go to speculate endlessly



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Re: Feature Request for long links

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 6 January 2018, Beartooth sent:
> Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature 
> that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to
> five lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate
> the spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.

Are you talking about links being typed into emails, or in emails
you're reading?  Either way, he solution would be more to do with the
email program not breaking a long URI into pieces (whether or not it
*displays* it spread across several lines).  The dreaded unintelligent
line wrapping methods that various mail clients use.

I've usually managed not too bad with those situations.  Some mail
clients will recognise the link is several lines long, and you can just
click on it anywhere.  Others may require you to highlight the whole
URI, and then it'll get treated as one long line.

-- 
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 4.13.16-202.fc26.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Nov 30 15:39:32 UTC 2017 x86_64

Boilerplate:  All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted.
There is no point trying to privately email me, I only get to see
the messages posted to the mailing list.

ZNQR LBH YBBX!
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Re: Feature Request for long links

[Doug]

On 01/06/2018 04:22 PM, Beartooth wrote:

Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature
that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to five
lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate the
spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.

With most other browsers, you have to proofread the pasted URL,
finding and removing the gaps. Irritating, and a waste of time.

No doubt the code to fix those links is internal to Firefox, and
one would have to beg umpteen developers each to adopt it. But need it be?

Could Fedora maybe go into the code, say between any browser and
the networking code that tells the computer to send a link, and insert
something to clean the link before acting on it?

This would be a great boon, especially those of us who surf with
arthritic eyeballs and trifocal fingers.


Can you get PaleMoon Browser? It's a spin-off from Firefox, and it doesn't
get rewritten every few weeks.

--doug
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Re: Feature Request for long links

[Joe Wulf]

Interesting and thoughtful possibility.  However, be careful of what you ask 
for.I see the potential for malicious use of such a 'feature' by the multitudes 
of miscreants who deliberately do damage. 


  From: Beartooth <bearto...@comcast.net>
 To: users@lists.fedoraproject.org 
 Sent: Saturday, January 6, 2018 4:26 PM
 Subject: Feature Request for long links
   

    Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature 
that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to five 
lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate the 
spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.

    With most other browsers, you have to proofread the pasted URL, 
finding and removing the gaps. Irritating, and a waste of time.

    No doubt the code to fix those links is internal to Firefox, and 
one would have to beg umpteen developers each to adopt it. But need it be?

    Could Fedora maybe go into the code, say between any browser and 
the networking code that tells the computer to send a link, and insert 
something to clean the link before acting on it?

    This would be a great boon, especially those of us who surf with 
arthritic eyeballs and trifocal fingers.

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
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Feature Request for long links

[Beartooth]

Firefox, along with few other browsers, has one valuable feature 
that should spread. If you copy a *long* link (like, say, three to five 
lines long in an email) into its address bar, it will eliminate the 
spaces that come from line ends, and go to the site.

With most other browsers, you have to proofread the pasted URL, 
finding and removing the gaps. Irritating, and a waste of time.

No doubt the code to fix those links is internal to Firefox, and 
one would have to beg umpteen developers each to adopt it. But need it be?

Could Fedora maybe go into the code, say between any browser and 
the networking code that tells the computer to send a link, and insert 
something to clean the link before acting on it?

This would be a great boon, especially those of us who surf with 
arthritic eyeballs and trifocal fingers.

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, Not Quite Clueless Power User
Remember I know little (precious little!) of where up is
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