http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=823535


in reply to Shortcut to Wolfram|Alpha [wolfram://]

I like it. The true power of shortcuts comes from the target website having a useful search interface or fuzzy selection interface. If a monk can confidently predict that the thing(s) she wants to point people to will be found by entering [google://yet another perl conference] or [wp://quantum electrodynamics] or [c2://You Arent Gonna Need It] or [wolframalpha://10 choose 3], then having the shortcut is a win.

But if the monk has to navigate to the desired target page every time anyway, she can simply copy-and-paste the URL, and having a shortcut is not a win.

Update: The shortcut has been implemented. Note that it is wolframalpha (or wa), but not wolfram.

What is the sound of Windows? Is it not the sound of a wall upon which people have smashed their heads... all the way through?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Shortcut to Wolfram|Alpha [wolfram://] (not wolfram://)
by tye (Sage) on Feb 16, 2010 at 23:54 UTC

    Yeah, it seems a reasonably useful shortcut to me. However, I wouldn't use "wolfram" as the key. We already have a shortcut to Wolfram's MathWorld and there are a several other things by Wolfram already. I'd probably have wolframalpha:// work for when you can't remember which abbr. works. "Alpha" is a widely-used word but alpha:// seems reasonable as an abbreviation since there aren't a lot of web sites primarily named "alpha". wa:// seems an even nicer abbr. So I'd define those three.

    - tye        

[reply]
      Both [wa://] and [wolframalpha://] have my vote. I'm skeptical about [alpha://].
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
[reply]

In Section Perl Monks Discussion