Re: About the Gnome Help browser

[Olof Oberg <mill pedgr571 sn umu se>]

> You could do something like that, but the "://" indicates a remote
> host *always* (that's my understanding anyway).  So, yes, we could
> allow "man://helpserver.foo.com/ls" but it would have to be translated
> (according to some configuration) to rewrite as something like
> "http://helpserver.foo.com/man.pl?ls" or whatever.  That is, the
> "man:" at the front does not indicate any transport mechanism, it
> just indicates that I'm type in a shortcut to a man page and the
> help browser need to rewrite it to a full proper URL.
Section 3.1 in rfc1738 says that Common Internet Schemes use "://" 
which is an indicator of direct use of an IP-based protocol. However 
one of these - "file://" - is an exception. Section 3.10.

"The file URL scheme is unusual in that it does not specify an
 Internet protocol or access method for such files; as such, its
 utility in network protocols between hosts is limited."

So one could use something similar when implementing "man://".
Note that Netscape doesnt implement the file scheme correctly. 
They allow file:/tmp for example when it should be file:///tmp. 
Just like my suggestion to allow man://1/man instead of man:///1/man 
is incorrect.

(side note: I think one can specify a specific protocol between the 
slashes.)

> We can just use http or ftp for that.  I'm hoping actually that
> it'll be user (system administrator) configurable, as in the
> example I just gave above.  Simple rewrite rules for these
> "URL shortcuts" would allow this.
After reading about file: I tried it with Navigator (it actually works!) 
and I could access a remote computer by specifying user and password. 
I dont know what Navigator uses but ftp could be possible. Lynx uses 
ftp.

Well I have picked up this mail again (started it 12h ago) and I think 
a new scheme altogether might be the wrong way to go. Maybe using URN 
resolution would be better. I will have to read up on the following 
RFCs (1738, 2141, 2169, 1630) to have any worthwhile opinion on it. 
Tomorrow I might have an idea. 

 /mill