Lyndon, The links are minimized in hopes of making the plain text version somewhat readable. It is purely for aesthetical reasons. If you view the web version http://contemplatecode.blogspot.com/2011/06/haskell-weekly-news-issue-187.ht... you'll see that they are not minimized there. Daniel On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Lyndon Maydwell wrote:

It's probably obvious, but is there a reason why the links in this email are being minimised?

On 6/23/11 10:49 AM, Iustin Pop wrote:

FYI, a regular link (though longer) seems more appropriate to me. Don't know if other people feel the same though.

+1

Picky readers we are. I don't mind URL length. And there are ways to have long URLs in-situ without being a big disruption. I hate the borrowed academic practice of saying [0] and giving the URL two hundred lines later. It worked great on paper in hands because I could stick my finger to the paper to remember where to return. It also works great on real HTML documents because browsers have a "back" button for the same. It completely fails in plain text email because I can't stick a finger and I can't press the "back" button. Which one is the bigger disruption: an in-situ long URL that makes me skip oh two lines to continue with the main text? or the URL postponed by two hundred lines so I have to first remember it is [1] not [0] this time, then scroll down several pages to hunt for the URL, and then... I forget where to return to? If people want short URLs, I don't mind that either, but I'm picky on how they are shortened. The shortener should offer the option of showing me the original URL and waiting for me to go ahead or abort. As far as I know this means tinyurl.com only. Thank you for bearing with my rant. [0] No URL for this. [1] No URL for this either.

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 6:53 PM, Rogan Creswick wrote:

Short, obfsucated, urls may direct you places you don't want to go, but I fail to see how that concern applies to HWN: since each url is accompanied by a description of its content, that seems to obviate the need to see the actual url.  In most cases, the text also indicates the domain that you will visit, so you can avoid supporting stackoverflow with page impressions if you wish (for example).

It is also possible to borrow half of Slashdot's system and write something like http://goo.gl/G081Q [article.gmane.org] Is that a good compromise? Cheers, -- Felipe.

Whoops, forgot to Reply All. My solution for the '[0] with a link far down the page' issue is just to search for '[0]'. Then it brings me to the link, I can open it if I like, and then I just search again for '[0]' and it brings me back to the context. It's imperfect and requires wraparound search, but it works (assuming they don't just have '[0]' scattered all over the place). I agree in principle, though. I just wish I could get my mail client to render Markdown as HTML. That'd make things so much nicer. On Jun 23, 2011, at 5:26 PM, Albert Y. C. Lai wrote:

Picky readers we are.

I don't mind URL length. And there are ways to have long URLs in-situ without being a big disruption.

I hate the borrowed academic practice of saying [0] and giving the URL two hundred lines later. It worked great on paper in hands because I could stick my finger to the paper to remember where to return. It also works great on real HTML documents because browsers have a "back" button for the same. It completely fails in plain text email because I can't stick a finger and I can't press the "back" button. Which one is the bigger disruption: an in-situ long URL that makes me skip oh two lines to continue with the main text? or the URL postponed by two hundred lines so I have to first remember it is [1] not [0] this time, then scroll down several pages to hunt for the URL, and then... I forget where to return to?

If people want short URLs, I don't mind that either, but I'm picky on how they are shortened. The shortener should offer the option of showing me the original URL and waiting for me to go ahead or abort. As far as I know this means tinyurl.com only.

Thank you for bearing with my rant.

[0] No URL for this.

[1] No URL for this either.

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On 24 June 2011 02:24, Rogan Creswick wrote:

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Simon Michael wrote:

...

On 6/23/11 10:49 AM, Iustin Pop wrote:

...

FYI, a regular link (though longer) seems more appropriate to me. Don't know if other people feel the same though.

I prefer the short links, since it is much easier to keep track of what's going on when reading on a small screen (much of my email reading these days is done on my phone.)

I'd prefer to just read an HTML version of HWN on my phone. How about simply sending an HTML email with a plaintext fallback? In the plaintext email I'd prefer full URLs to cut/copy on my computer terminal. Conrad.