WP-A: A New URL Shortener

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:38 AM, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
> <PointedEars at web.de> wrote:
>> Chris Angelico wrote:
>>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 9:53 AM, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
>>> <PointedEars at web.de> wrote:
>>>> […] I cannot be sure because I have not thought this through, but with
>>                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>> aliases for common second-level domains, and with text compression, it
>>>> should be possible to do this without a database.
>>>
>>> How? If you shorten URLs, you have to be able to reconstruct the long
>>> ones. Compression can't do that to arbitrary lengths. Somewhere there
>>> needs to be the rest of the information.
>>
>> First of all, you quoted me out of context.
> 
> I trimmed the context. You got a problem with that?

Please do not insult my intelligence.  I have a problem with that you are 
not marking the omission of considerable parts of *my* text, here giving the 
wrong impression that I did not start my follow-up in an encouraging way.
 
>> Second, do you even read what you reply to?  See the markings above.
> 
> Instead of thinking about URL shorteners specifically, think generally
> about information theory. You cannot, fundamentally, shorten all URLs
> arbitrarily. There just isn't enough room to store the information.

You are the one introducing “arbitrary” here.  I am not at all convinced, 
but this discussion is beyond the scope of this newsgroup/mailing list.
 
>> But speaking of length limits, the lines in your postings are too long,
>> according to Usenet convention.  I had to correct the quotations so that
>> they remained readable when word-wrapped.
> 
> Oh, so you'd rather the lines be cut to... I dunno, 80 characters?

No, quotations ought to be word-wrapped, preserving paragraphs, in order not 
to exceed that limit.  That is why the recommended line length limit for 
posting is not 80 characters, but something from 68 to 78.

> Might be a good reason to use a URL shortener.

URIs can posted to a newsgroup/mailing list without shortening them, by 
wrapping them without breaking them.  Will you *please* read [2] to clarify 
that misconception of yours?
 
-- 
PointedEars

Twitter: @PointedEars2
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