Re: "internal-gopher-image"?!?

Larry Masinter (masinter@parc.xerox.com)
Tue, 14 Dec 1993 09:53:44 PST


> I see some nive icons in Mosaic (inlined icons), but have no way to refer
> to them from my documents. I mean such as for ftp or gopher URLs.

> It would save much traffic over the lines if we could have a
> standard set of icons on the client site I could refer from the server site
> (I will say from the documents on a server).

> My vote:

> <IMG SRC=/INLINE/icon01.gif>

> The path component INLINE is reserved to be interpreted by the clients.
> If client found INLINE the next component is interpreted as one of
> a welldefined set of icons - nothing to transfer.

> If the client hasn't this feature he could transfer as till now.
> Because of that the server should have these "Standard-Icons" in the
> INLINE directory too.

> Could this be a area of standardization? - It would be so nice.

Here's another proposal:
Invent a new kind of reference.
Call it a `name' instead of a `location'.
MMM, how about URN instead of URL.

Use the URNs of frequently used icons instead of URLs.

Some clients might even have built into them
*copies* of resources that are really frequently
used (like common inline images).

Others might retrieve them every time and just cache them
for a short time.

Others might have different caching schemes.

This could be a new area of standardization.