Re: :zz,dictron: ZZ server versus clickable file

[Andrew Pam <xanni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Jun 20, 1998 at 12:27:04AM +0900, Ted Nelson wrote:
> You saith (with regards to opening a ZZ file
>  versus starting a client session, I think)--
> 
> >Here are examples of the two kinds of URL:
> >
> >http://www.xanadu.net/zigzag/example
> >http://localhost:5678/
> 
> In other words, one URL is a file and the other is
>  a directory?  Except I've never seen that colon before ...

There's no real distinction in HTTP; either way you're expecting to
receive a resource (for example, a web page).  The colon is used to
specify the port to connect to, and defaults to ":80" (the reserved HTTP
port) if ommitted, which it usually is.  We could set the zigzag server
up to use port 80 but would want to check if it was already in use by
another web server first!  This would also prevent users from starting
another web server on the normal port.

> My question is, couldn't it open for any purpose by
>  clicking on a desktop filey-looking thing, which starts
>  the server-push connection?  (I've had server-push connections
>  started by filey-looking things)

If the "desktop filey-looking thing" represents a URL, as with "Internet
Shortcuts" in Windows 95+, yes.  Alternatively you could have an HTML
document which contains a META tag redirecting the user to the URL for the
zigzag server.  Or the zigzag server could start a copy of your preferred
web browser and point it at the correct address.  This approach has the
additional benefit that it allows us to pick a port number at runtime.

Cheers,
	*** Xanni ***
-- 
mailto:xanni@xxxxxxxxxx                         Andrew Pam
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