Clean out those dead links

Clean out those dead links

[wrp]

I'm currently searching online for Ada resources. What impresses me
most so far is the number of dead links I find.

When I find a page listing Ada resources, I'm finding that usually
about 80% of the links are dead. It creates a pretty bad impression to
see that so many projects have been abandoned. What's even worse,
though, is to see that people who once cared enough about Ada to
promote it on their web site now don't think about it, and probably
haven't for several years.

Don't you agree that can give people a really bad impression of the
state of Ada?

So, if you have an Ada page, why don't you spend a few minutes to
clean it up?

Cheers

Re: Clean out those dead links

[Patrick]

As someone new to Ada. I have found this very discouraging at the beginning. I only gained confidence to make an investment in the language once I realized it would play nice with C and that compiler support was likely to continue for 10-20 more years.

Even Adacore's site has a lot of dead links.

The trouble is how can we the people who care, get those who don't to update their sites? Easier said then done.

Thanks for bring this topic up I think it needs attention-Patrick

Re: Clean out those dead links

[Nasser M. Abbasi]

On 6/9/2012 5:11 PM, wrp wrote:

>
> So, if you have an Ada page, why don't you spend a few minutes to
> clean it up?
>

Agree. But it does really take more than few minutes.

When I cleaned the links on my Ada links page:

http://12000.org/my_notes/ada/original_web_page.htm

I record the time that the link was check to be valid,
and if the link is broken, search the net for where the
link gone (this takes time) so that to update it, and there
is no alternative link to be found, then remove it.

I remember it took me few long hrs to do the whole page.

I guess many are busy with work and family, not everyone
has time.

But your point is valid. I have the same experience. This reminds
me, I need to go check my Ada links now. I see I last validated
them in 2005 :)

--Nasser

Re: Clean out those dead links

[Stephen Leake]

"Nasser M. Abbasi" <nma@12000.org> writes:

> On 6/9/2012 5:11 PM, wrp wrote:
>
>>
>> So, if you have an Ada page, why don't you spend a few minutes to
>> clean it up?
>>
>
> Agree. But it does really take more than few minutes.
>
> When I cleaned the links on my Ada links page:
>
> http://12000.org/my_notes/ada/original_web_page.htm
>
> I record the time that the link was check to be valid,
> and if the link is broken, search the net for where the
> link gone (this takes time) so that to update it, and there
> is no alternative link to be found, then remove it.
>
> I remember it took me few long hrs to do the whole page.

webcheck can help here (http://www.stephe-leake.org/ada/webcheck.html).
It scans a web site, checking the validity of each link, and outputs a
list of the broken ones.

That automates the first step, at least.

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Clean out those dead links

[J-P. Rosen]

Le 10/06/2012 00:11, wrp a �crit :
> I'm currently searching online for Ada resources. What impresses me
> most so far is the number of dead links I find.
> [...]
> So, if you have an Ada page, why don't you spend a few minutes to
> clean it up?
> 
I have a link on my page that says "if you find a broken link, please
tell me". I had but a couple of reports in years, from which I assumed
that updating my page was not the most urgent thing to do.

When I come across a broken link myself, I try to fix it ASAP, but not
sooner ;-)

-- 
J-P. Rosen
Adalog
2 rue du Docteur Lombard, 92441 Issy-les-Moulineaux CEDEX
Tel: +33 1 45 29 21 52, Fax: +33 1 45 29 25 00
http://www.adalog.fr

Re: Clean out those dead links

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

J-P. Rosen wrote:

> I have a link on my page that says "if you find a broken link, please
> tell me". I had but a couple of reports in years, from which I assumed
> that updating my page was not the most urgent thing to do.

I'm optimistic enough, that I just expect people to write me whenever
they run into a broken link on one of my websites. - But it sounds like
that my be overly optimistic.

Greetings,

Jacob
-- 
     My brain needs a "back" button so I can
         remember where I left my coffee mug.

Re: Clean out those dead links

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:54:14 +0200, Jacob Sparre Andersen <sparre@nbi.dk>  
a écrit:

> J-P. Rosen wrote:
>
>> I have a link on my page that says "if you find a broken link, please
>> tell me". I had but a couple of reports in years, from which I assumed
>> that updating my page was not the most urgent thing to do.
>
> I'm optimistic enough, that I just expect people to write me whenever
> they run into a broken link on one of my websites. - But it sounds like
> that my be overly optimistic.

Make sure your contact informations are visible enough and no one can miss  
it. Make it big enough (no small font), and distinct with a dedicated  
color or font or with easily recognizable icon, and place it in the left  
margin of each page, not at the bottom pages and not only on the home  
page. In short, show contacting you is worth and show you expect it.

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.” [1]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [1]
[1]: Epigrams on Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University

Re: Clean out those dead links

[Jacob Sparre Andersen]

Yannick Duch�ne wrote:

> Make sure your contact informations are visible enough and no one can
> miss it. Make it big enough (no small font), and distinct with a
> dedicated color or font or with easily recognizable icon, and place it
> in the left margin of each page, not at the bottom pages and not only
> on the home page. In short, show contacting you is worth and show you
> expect it.

I have my e-mail address as a working link on each and every page on my
site.

But I think it is always at the bottom of the page, as I don't want it
to be in the way for the information people come to the page for.

Are there any browsers, which make the e-mail addresses embedded in the
HTTP headers and the HTML document head available to the users?  (I've
only tested in two browsers, and they didn't seem to do it.)

Rather than wasting screen real-estate on my e-mail address, I would
like to make it available to the readers in a less intrusive way.  Maybe
by extending the context menu in the browser with an e-mail link.

Greetings,

Jacob
-- 
"The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind
 in his work."