An idea to include in the guidelines

Hi,
One idea to include in the guidelines is to have the option to enter
commands to the browser via the URL field.  This command option can have many,
many uses.  A significant one would be choosing a link by number.

The command option would be on some user configuration panel and its
default setting would be off.

When the command option is active, the browser can easily identify
whether the user is entering a command or a URL.  Basically, the criteria
would be on the first non-white-space, non-null, complete substring as follows:

    a.  if the entire substring is only a period or a single slash,
	then it can be a command

    b.  if the substring starts with a digit, contains only digits
	and punctuation, e.g. 3.5,6, and is not in IP address format,
	then it can be a command

    c.  if the substring does not start with a digit and does not contain
	a period nor a slash, then it can be a command

(I have a small nagging question that the third set of criteria might need
to be a little tighter in case the browser is used on an intranet where
just a machine name is specified as the initial URL, e.g. 'homedocs'.)


A special key combination, e.g.  ALT-SHIFT-U,  would move the GUI focus
to the URL field where the user could type a URL or a command.
(Note, this key would have universal access benefit since sighted
people would find it helpful while it helps reduce the navigation
a blind person has to do to get to the URL field.)


What kinds of commands could users specify?  Hold that thought for a bit.



Scott

Received on Wednesday, 4 March 1998 18:15:10 UTC