<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div>(sorry for the slow reply -- I was using the digest)<div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><blockquote type="cite"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br></font></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Am 03.11.2009 um 23:12 schrieb David Messerschmitt:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">To those of you struggling with breaking of long URLs using \url <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">{}, how about just creating a short URL using one of the free URL <br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">redirection services like:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Doesn't it turn the URL into something vague, indeterminate, <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">anonymous?<br></blockquote><br></div></blockquote><br></div><div>Yes, but there are only two reasons to put a URL inline: (a) hide it behind some descriptive text and (b) create a reference that can be located across different media, including paper. For (a) long URL length and formating is not an issue, and for (b) asking the reader to type in a long URL can be seriously annoying. The URL syntax was never optimized for human readability anyways, and the longer the URL the less readable it is. I think for purpose (b) a short URL is compelling.</div><div><br></div><div>-dave</div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>David Messerschmitt</div><div>Roger Strauch Professor Emeritus</div><div>Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences</div><div>University of Californa at Berkeley</div><div> and</div><div>Visiting Professor</div><div>Helsinki University of Technology</div><div>Software Business Laboratory</div><div> and</div><div>Visiting Researcher</div><div>SETI Institute</div><br></div><br></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>