Trailing slash in URLs

[Mary-Ellen Mort]

On Fri, 13 Sep 1996, Peter Murray wrote:

> I was perhaps thinking of the "canonical form" of URLs, but in any case it is
> clear that the trailing slash when accessing the root of a server is not
> required.  Thanks to Erik Jul of OCLC for pointing out my error...

Now I really wish I had asked this group about this before my site was 
set up!  I should have included the trailing "/" in the URL in all our 
site brochures, etc. because many local public libraries (my primary 
audience) are using LYNX readers. (Often from inside their 
Internet-connected OPACs.)

My non-technical understanding of this (and I'd love to know more about 
exactly why this is..) is that LYNX looks for the "/" at the end of a 
path name. Most servers are set up to read "jobsmart.org" as 
"jobsmart.org/index.htm"  LYNX, apparently, cannot. It sees 
"jobsmart.org" and says "can't find this file."

You CAN fool around at the server level and correct this. But it's more 
time and trouble than my server is willing to invest for the graphically 
impoverished.

It would have been so much easier to just add the "/" in all our printed 
materials.

Mary-Ellen Mort,
JobSmart Project Director
http://jobsmart.org/