Re: LYNX-DEV X-URL header field

[Al Gilman]

to follow up on what Uzi Paz said:

> Recently the maintainer of RFC2076, asked for the meaning and origin
> of the "X-URL:" e-mail header field, and I recalled that Lynx adds this
> header field whenever you ask to post some web-page via e-mail.
> 
> Another header field which is sometimes used (not by Lynx) but seems to be
> absolutely equivalent, is the "Content-Location:".
> 

The closest equivalent is not Content-Location, which says "you
can get another copy of this document from ..." but Referrer,
which says "the transaction that launched this message originate
from a reference within ..."

> Anyone here can tell me the origin of "X-URL:" (was it invented by the
> Lynx developers or they took from another place?), and if you know of
> other place where it is used?
> 

I can tell you the history of Content-location anyway.  It means
the same thing as the Location header in HTTP, but has the
Content- prefix for MIME reasons I prefer not to go into.

Fote can give you the exact history on X-URL.  There was some use of
X-within-URL and later it was shortened to X-URL.

The parallel use that you _must_ consider in trying to arrange a
convergence on some sensible standard is the URL header used as a
_secondary_ header in FAQs in Usenet.  That is actually closer to
the Location semantics (or an URN even stronger than Location)
because its dominant use is to refer to a persistent location
where the latest version of the FAQ you are reading will be
available.

-- Al Gilman
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