Odd URL

[frederick]

I've just come across a link to this odd-looking URL:
http://www.prbm.com/interest/i.htm?manuscripts-d-f.shtml~main

Can anyone enlighten me as to use of the "~main" at the end?

 

[Michael Winter]

On 20/04/2006 14:30, frederick wrote:

[snip]

http://www.prbm.com/interest/i.htm?manuscripts-d-f.shtml~main

Can anyone enlighten me as to use of the "~main" at the end?

Notice that it's part of the query string? It can mean whatever
/interest/i.htm wants it to mean.

In this case, the frameset page (/interest/i.htm) uses some rather
badly-written client-side code to load its content frame from the query
string. The tilde (~) acts as a separator between the document URL and
the name of the frame to load.

This can be done, and should have been, server-side (though omitting
frames altogether would be the best option).

Mike

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

I've just come across a link to this odd-looking URL:
http://www.prbm.com/interest/i.htm?manuscripts-d-f.shtml~main

Can anyone enlighten me as to use of the "~main" at the end?

A token to compensate for the limitation of frames and bookmarkable URLs

 

[frederick]

Notice that it's part of the query string? It can mean whatever
/interest/i.htm wants it to mean.

In this case, the frameset page (/interest/i.htm) uses some rather
badly-written client-side code to load its content frame from the query
string. The tilde (~) acts as a separator between the document URL and
the name of the frame to load.

I should've figured that it was for the frame... {sigh}

I'd never come across a tilde as part of a query string before, and was
wondering if it was indicative of a particular technology being used
somewhere on the server side, such as language X or vendor's script Y.

This can be done, and should have been, server-side (though omitting
frames altogether would be the best option).

Particularly when they're badly implemented: I can't see the bottom
part of the left-hand menu! When will these people ever learn...

Anyway, thanks!

 

[frederick]

A token to compensate for the limitation of frames and bookmarkable URLs

Now that explains it still further. Must be having an off day for not
realising that...!

I suppose that it indicates that someone's trying to use their brains
for that site; a bit of a shame that they solved the wrong problem!

 

[Jim Higson]

I've just come across a link to this odd-looking URL:
http://www.prbm.com/interest/i.htm?manuscripts-d-f.shtml~main

Can anyone enlighten me as to use of the "~main" at the end?

In general (but not in this case) ~foo is UNIX-speak for a user's home
directory. A home directory is like "My Documents" on Windows. For example
on my machine, ~jim is shorthand for the path /home/jim

You sometimes see addresses like http://example.com/~harry to mean harry's
webspace on example.com's servers. Academia seems to be quite keen on this
URL scheme.

Anyway, web servers can interpret the part of the URL between the domain and
the first '?' symbol any way they want. For the URL you posted it seems
they just use '~' because the author couldn't think of anything better.

 

[cwdjrxyz]

I've just come across a link to this odd-looking URL:
http://www.prbm.com/interest/i.htm?manuscripts-d-f.shtml~main

Can anyone enlighten me as to use of the "~main" at the end?

It appears that you have received the correct answer. Actually there
are many odd-looking URLs, and many of these are associated with media.
If you go to the new Google video service and examine how they link to
various free video files, their special Google player, etc, you will
find many unusual URLs used as well as a special extension for the
Google player. Also there are some very long ones that run over 2 or 3
lines. Also when you call a streaming media file on a streaming Real or
Windows Media server you often use a URL structure not used elsewhere.
As one example, when you are using a recent Real Player to display a
SMIL page, you code for a progressive download video, image, music, etc
may start with either the usual http://... or chttp//... . Using the
"c" at the start of the url tells the Real player to cache what you
called in a special Real player cache so that it does not have to be
reloaded at a second pass.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

It appears that you have received the correct answer. Actually there
are many odd-looking URLs, and many of these are associated with media.
If you go to the new Google video service and examine how they link to
various free video files, their special Google player, etc, you will
find many unusual URLs used as well as a special extension for the
Google player. Also there are some very long ones that run over 2 or 3
lines. Also when you call a streaming media file on a streaming Real or
Windows Media server you often use a URL structure not used elsewhere.
As one example, when you are using a recent Real Player to display a
SMIL page, you code for a progressive download video, image, music, etc
may start with either the usual http://... or chttp//... . Using the
"c" at the start of the url tells the Real player to cache what you
called in a special Real player cache so that it does not have to be
reloaded at a second pass.

Yes, but what you are describing is the protocol part of the url and has
nothing to do with the OP. The OP's situation is pseudo query string
that with JavaScript is used to select a frame to be displayed in a
attempt of overcome the shortcomings of frame whereby only the outermost
containing frame is 'visiable' in the URL. Best solution would be to
abandon the frames or at least employ a real query string and use
server-side scripting to select the internal frame.

 

[dorayme]

In general (but not in this case) ~foo is UNIX-speak for a user's home
directory. A home directory is like "My Documents" on Windows. For example
on my machine, ~jim is shorthand for the path /home/jim

You sometimes see addresses like http://example.com/~harry to mean harry's
webspace on example.com's servers. Academia seems to be quite keen on this
URL scheme.

Yes, on the Optus servers, e.g., one puts a /~username at the end
of http://username.optusnet.com.au to get to a username's home or
index page.