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I note the WS algorithm occasionally fails to linkify an address and curious about this apparent shortcoming. Example, in one of Jackie's posts toward the end of from the bad news department(?)
I use the term "linkify" to denote the automatic detection and transformation of an address (also called URL?) into a form immediately clickable without the need for highlighting or accessing a dropown. In this process it turns the address blue and underlines it, in more sophisticated algorithms also foreshortening it
My questions are three: (1) Why doesn't cickification always occur; (2) what are the acceptable terms for "linkify" and "clickify" and (3) isn't URL just a sophisticated synonym for "address" and if not why not
dalehileman
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Probably you've already been there, but if not http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1738.html
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Thank you zm for the link but for a typical old fart like me, it might as well have been written in Sanskrit
dalehileman
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Ah, Dale, sometimes , occasionally the linker doesn't do what it should do. Then you try again and it works. Or you refresh your mouse's contents and it works. Or not.
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1. I don't know. It could be some browser setting or it could be some setting at certain sites. It might also be a particular editing mode you are using. Or it could be some invisible characters sneaking in.
2. I'm not sure about "linkify" or "clickify," but the intent seems obvious, so you shouldn't hesitate to use them, if there is no better word. "Clickable" is a very common usage. We used to use the word "Hyperlink" as both a noun and a verb. So "I will hyperlink that." One could say "Hyperlink a URL," but it may be ambiguous.
3. A URL is more than an "address," although some of the information may be implicit. The address is derivable from the URL. The URL specifies a protocol (http, telnet, etc) and can contain other stuff (like port numbers, user names, passwords). The wordsmith.org is not the "address."
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Pooh-Bah
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Fal thank you, I was much surprised to learn that I hadn't invented "clickable" while "hyperlink" as a verb indeed serves for "linkify". I gather then that "wordsmith.org" is a hyperlink and so is what Bran refers to as a "linker".
But I'm not sure whether a URL always qualifies. For a while I was unsuccessful clickifying on one until I discovered they didn't respond if preceded by "/http:/" Meanwhile however this proviso must have been dropped because lately URL's containing it have been eminently amenable to clickification
As for URL, yes my IT No. 1 Son has attempted to explain in much the same terms but with little enlightenment on my part. But your efforts are appreciated
dalehileman
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People in technical fields like computer science, IT, (or physics for that matter) very often adopt improper use of words for informal usage. It can make for interesting confusion at times. There are a number of reasons why this happens:
sometimes someone doesn't understand a thing and uses the word incorrectly and the incorrect usage catches on (internet and web are probably describe the same thing for most people, but technically they are different);
other times someone takes a word and uses it to express a more general idea.
There are other reasons, but all of them, I suspect are the same kinds of reasons that words change meanings in the rest of human discourse.
The words you have chosen clearly convey some kind of meaning. By themselves they might be a little ambiguous, but in context, I think the meaning is clear in most cases.
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Pooh-Bah
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Fal et al: Thank you for your support. We may have discussed it before in another thread which however I can't find, but I wonder if anyone can explain the difference between a link and a hyperlink. I've Googled it as follows, but I'm still in the dark http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/html_links.aspAlso I'm curious what the link (?) in the form of a word or phrase which the user has substituted for the usual URL-derived coding, is called and whether "Reply", Quote," "Quick reply" etc at the bottom of a post qualify in this way
dalehileman
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Dale,
I'm not sure. Here's what I think:
1. "Hyperlink" is short for "hypertext link."
2. Link is often (usually) just short for "hyperlink."
That is, sometimes "link" is synonymous with hyperlink.
HOWEVER, in computer science and even in web stuff, link has a more general meaning.
According to some references, the word link in web parlance can also refer to stuff that is "pointed to" but is not necessarily clickable. For example, if you were to bring in an image using img src, it might not be clickable (unless you put an href around it). In this view, all hyperlinks are links, but all links are not hyperlinks. That is, hyperlinks are clickable; links may or may not be clickable.
In more general CS terms, a link is a "pointer" or a "reference" to something else. A linked-list, for example is a data structure composed of "records" or "structures" in which each record has a "pointer" to the "next" record in the list.
So generally, a "link" is a mechanism for connecting things in different places.
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From Onelook:
Quick definitions (hyperlink)
▸ noun: a link from a hypertext file to another location or file; typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or icon at a particular location on the screen
Quick definitions (link)
▸ noun: (computing) an instruction that connects one part of a program or an element on a list to another program or list
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"noun: (computing) an instruction that connects one part of a program or an element on a list to another program or list"
Interesting. The discussion may be too technical for this forum, but I don't immediately recall ever having heard or read it used quite this way; that is, as an "instruction."
In the verb form, we can refer to instructions that perform a link. But the code itself ... I can't say it's not done, only that I don't recall hearing it used that way. (No particular reason why they shouldn't, I guess.) When we're talking about code or instructions that perform a link, we refer to a "linkage."
In the usage I'm familiar with, a "link" is not an instruction, but might be part of an instruction. It's an address that might be an operand to an instruction.
I'm wondering if maybe that other usage might be a peculiarity of assembly language programmers. I've done a bit of that, but it's never been a big part of my job.
All this being said, if you used the term like that with a little context, I think most programmer types would follow what you were saying.
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Pooh-Bah
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Again guys thank you. But I am still wondering whether the highlighted/abbreviated link, as defined in Jackie's contribution (eg "Reply" typically at the bottom of a post), might have another more distinctive name
dalehileman
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"noun: (computing) an instruction that connects one part of a program or an element on a list to another program or list"
Hmm. Not sure, as is FF, what is being referred to in this definition. There is a phase in writing programs called linking. It comes after compilation of source code into binary object files whereby two or more binary object files are concatenated together into one single executable file. Another meaning of link, besides the HTML-oriented (hyper)link is a symbolic link. In the context of Unix-like file systems a symbolic link is similar to a Windows file shortcut. It is a kind of alias of a file. In the context of data structures, specifically a linked list, a link could be a synonym for a pointer (as was earlier mentioned).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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"It comes after compilation of source code into binary object files whereby two or more binary object files are concatenated together into one single executable file."
Of course! Forgot to mention that one. There's a definite commonality between all these meanings - a link is something that is connecting things in a manner of speaking.
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