Bug Name: URL Naming Bug 2

Duration: >10 years

Supplier: Browser Builders

Alias: Forward/backward naming

Product: All Existing Browsers

Bug: URLs are needlessly inconsistent and cryptic (not to mention hard
  to pronounce). They contain both right-to-left (paths) and
  left-to-right naming (hosts).

Class of error: Catenate two incompatible standards and expose
      implementation details to the user

Bug:
  A typical URL looks like
    http://www.example.com/foo/bar.html
  but sometimes
    http://support.example.com/foo/bar.html
  etc.
  Note that part of the URL is a hostname, which has the top of the
  naming hierarchy on the right, and part is a path, which has the top
  of the naming hierarchy on the left.  The distinction between the
  host and the path is really of no interest to the user.  Second, the
  need for the "www" is a failure to implement a decent DNS directory
  (e.g. the SRV RRs); it is typically (but not always) redundant with
  the http:// portion of the URL.  Similarly the .html is typically
  redundant, or a convenience to the the website instead of the user
  (websites don't typically have more than one of .html, .txt, .php,
  etc. extensions for a page).

Proposed Fix:

  The above URL could be represented instead as
    http/com/example/foo/bar
  which is less typing and simpler.

  The browser would contact DNS for the COM domain asking for the HTTP
  server for EXAMPLE and get back a pointer to the EXAMPLE domain DNS
  server.  Next it would contact the DNS server for the EXAMPLE domain
  and ask for HTTP server for FOO.  Now it would get an IP address
  for www.example.com and the port number to connect to.  It would
  connect and pass the whole URL to the HTTP daemon.  The HTTP
  daemon would figure out whether the filename is supposed to be
  ".html" or ".php" etc.  The user would never need to know that
  "support" is sometimes part of the hostname and sometimes part of
  the pathname; software would figure that out for her using DNS
  (e.g. SRV records).

Discussion:

Bug first observed: [Date] 1991

Observer: [Your name] Earl A. Killian

Bug reported to supplier: [Date]

Bug on list since: