Rant: Microsoft Urls
For some strange reasons, Microsoft web site urls tend to be really long. Even the new ones.
Today, I found out that IronPython was migrated to CodePlex.com and the url for that ?
http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython
Excluding 'http://' part, its 54 characters long. So, if its to be typed by hand, it would take 54 keystrokes. Its very difficult to remember too.
The Msn Spaces had a long url as well but they quickly reacted to feedback and made it more friendlier and shorter. Instead of 'spaces.msn.com/members/richard76', they removed the redundant 'members' so now its simply 'spaces.msn.com/richard76' . But because they had 'member' in there before, there potentially exists many links that point to the older version while many would point to the shorter one thereby creating two web address for the same thing!
I hereby request the CodePlex team to reconsider their urls and see if it can be made shorter and simpler.
Present:
www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython
Suggested:
www.codeplex.com/IronPython
Urls are for human consumption and therefore needs to be friendlier.
At present, it looks like a typical geeky function call.
I am guessing they spent way too much time in getting their quality up and missed reading "
Cool URIs don't change" by Tim Berners-Lee :-)