Re URLs and periods

[Thomas Dowling]

>URLs don't include periods. Period.
>


It's a good line, but here's a relatively likely counterexample:

http://opac.foo.edu/search/auth/salinger+j.d.

Of course, any reasonable opac will give you your results if you leave off
the final period; that doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be there.  More to
the point, do you want your e-mail program to decide for you whether the
trailing period should be there or not?

For what it's worth, the standard that defines URL syntax, RFC 1738, also
recommends a way to write them so that they can be clearly distinguished in
the context of other writing.  You can remove all guesswork by using the
recommended syntax of <URL:http://opac.foo.edu/search/auth/salinger+j.d.>.
If your e-mail client claims to create hot links out of URLs and doesn't
support this syntax, that's a bug and should be reported.

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu