Re: A workable alternative to "hex-encoded UTF-8 encoded URLs"

["Martin J. Duerst" <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, 16 Apr 1997, Larry Masinter wrote:

> If the problem of "users need to be able to see and write
> URLs in their preferred script" is important, there's
> a way to solve that problem actually:

[description of how to use a directory service]

> I call these "FRLs": Friendly Resource Locators. They're not
> Uniform, but they can be used to locate resources.

We already have search services, not only in the US.

The fact that directory services are not very quickly
developping is an indication to me that (at least for
English), between URLs and search services, there may
not be that much of a need for something else.

And I don't know why the rest of the world has to wait
for something else when English speakers already have
it all.


> It will require the development of a global infrastructure
> for a directory service, but that is actually easier to
> imagine than the global deployment of user agents that could
> handle hex-encoded UTF-8 encoded URLs.

Well, as long as the average user agent runs on a PC with
Windows or some other box with Java, I strongly doubt that
your global directory service infrastructure will be
deployed earlier.

Regards,	Martin.