Re: URL schemes containing +, -, or .

On Sun, 12 May 1996, William F. Hammond wrote:

> As the number of schemes that we want to be a part of the Web
> increases, it becomes increasingly unreasonable not to have
> user-configurable external handler applications for the various
> schemes just as most browsers now permit the user to configure
> external viewing applications by mimetype.
> 
> Has anyone actually provided for external handlers?

The alpha release of Hotjava did; haven't looked at the beta.  See
<URL:http://java.sun.com/java.sun.com/doc/alphaHandlerDoc/alphaProtocol/>
for an example.  When Java was first released this was touted as a major
feature, but it apparently hasn't caught on.  Excerpt from an archived 
message from Arthur van Hoff to java-interest, October 1995:

  > Has anyone gotten a content or protocol handler running under the JDK,
  > particularly with Netscape. Does Netscape support Java-based content and
  > protocol handlers?

  Netscape won't support protocol handlers as part of their 2.0 releases.
 
Grail does too; haven't used it either, but see
<URL:http://monty.cnri.reston.va.us/grail/info/extending/ext_proto.html>
I'm sure there are more.

--
Paul Phillips                                 | "Click _here_ if you do not
<URL:mailto:paulp@cerf.net>                   |  have a graphical browser"
<URL:http://www.cerf.net/~paulp/>             |  -- Canter and Siegel, on
<URL:pots://+1-619-558-3789/is/paul/there?>   |  their short-lived web site

Received on Sunday, 12 May 1996 14:25:38 UTC