I’ve been working on this for a while, but let’s make it official: I started a little Tumblr-like microblog about software craft and quality!

[drmikepj@mastodon.social]

@mwichary call me a middle-aged codger but I still type urls by hand and wince slightly when people put a site’s name into google rather than just typing whateveritis.com

[doekman@mastodon.nl]

@mwichary True to that. Reminds me I always wondered why no API documentation existed on Dropbox/Google Drive/Nextcloud URL’s. I had to reverse engineer them. Apparently API's should be REST…

[sylvhem@eldritch.cafe]

@mwichary It makes me happy to see that others care about URL.

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@Ember Yeah, I agree that part is a bit muddy where every scheme has pros and cons. This one seems to indicate there is more hierarchy than there actually is…

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@mez Good question. I don’t know! I naturally put it at the front but that might be because I only saw it that way. Interesting point about autocomplete!

[csilverman@mastodon.social]

@mwichary The idea of URLs as user interface elements is such a good take. I've seen some people use URLs as design/communications elements as well, like Jessica Hische:

https://www.jessicahische.is/thinkingthoughts

https://www.jessicahische.is/working

https://jessicahische.is/anoversharer

I love that approach. Modern browsers and preview cards often obscure URLs, but people still see these things; printed materials, links in emails, etc.

[nelson@tech.lgbt]

@mwichary this clean URI scheme is also why FlickrClient.py could support 68 methods of the Flickr API in just 48 lines of code. The core magic:

def __getattr__(self, method):
  def method(_self=self, _method=method, **params):
    _method = _method.replace("_", ".")
    url = HOST + PATH + "?method=%s&%s&api_key=%s" %
          (_method, urlencode(params), self.api_key)
    try: rsp = xmltramp.load(url)
    except: return None
    return _self._parseResponse(rsp)

[polarbirke@indieweb.social]

@mwichary Much agreement!

There is plenty of prior art, some examples that I particularly remember:
- 2010: https://warpspire.com/posts/url-design/
- 2017: https://www.hanselman.com/blog/urls-are-ui
- 2018: https://alexpounds.com/blog/2018/12/29/four-cool-urls

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@polarbirke Thanks for sharing!

[cogdog@cosocial.ca]

@mwichary I love the Flickr url pattern. You could not find a collections link with knowing the pattern.

I am fine with the unique id as shorter url. Also knowing where it is in a downloaded photo allows the secret url trick to find the original page https://cogdogblog.com/2015/10/flickr-trickr/

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@cogdog Whoa! This would’ve saved me so much trouble throughout the years.

[jimniels@mastodon.social]

@mwichary fwiw I wrote some of my favs a while back

https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/examples-of-great-urls/

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@jimniels Thanks! Added here, maybe it helps someone! https://unsung.aresluna.org/mailbag-urls-as-ui/

[splorp@mastodon.social]

@mwichary @cogdog One pattern I use a lot to locate my own images is for tags.

https://flickr.com/photos/splorp/tags/blue

[mx@typo.social]

@splorp @mwichary @cogdog Slightly offtopic, but I still use `/photo.gne?id=` URL to find where I downloaded certain photos years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?rb=1&id=3399133066

[luke@typo.social]

@splorp @mwichary @cogdog look at that patina on that bus design. Just don’t look at the poorly applied window tint.

[splorp@mastodon.social]

@mx @mwichary @cogdog Just the fact that those legacy Game Neverending URIs still function after all this time is mind-blowing.

[splorp@mastodon.social]

@Luke @mwichary @cogdog Those air pockets make my teeth hurt.

[mwichary@mastodon.online]

@splorp @mx @cogdog Cool URIs Never End

[dokas@mas.to]

@mwichary @splorp @mx @cogdog Just wanted to pipe up and mention that while the photo.gne trick isn't advertised it's known and so useful I even have a Launchbar search plugin for it.