[website] libs/* --> doc/libs/BOOST_VERSION/libs/* rewriting rule

Hello, The website PHP is devised in such a way that documentation URLs are automatically rewritten to point to the specific Boost version most recently shipped. For instance, if I type the following in my browser: http://www.boost.org/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm I get the following redirection: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_36_0/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm This is fine in that it allows us to keep a historic record of documentation across Boost versions. My little complain is that the automatic redirection makes it all too easy to inadvertently use version-specific URLs when referring to Boost docs in external contexts (blogs, forums, etc.) This is in my opinion unfortunate because such URLs are stuck in time and do not reflect the evolution of the library. Of course it's easy to get to the most recent info, but untrained eyes might miss the detail and take the version-specific URL for the most updated reference. A simple Google search (http://tinyurl.com/42ufrn ) reveals that these version-specific URLs are beginning to proliferate. Maybe is it a good idea to not apply this redirection and instead serve the most updated docs for non-version-labeled URLs? Thank you, Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo

on Thu Oct 09 2008, joaquin-AT-tid.es wrote:
Hello,
The website PHP is devised in such a way that documentation URLs are automatically rewritten to point to the specific Boost version most recently shipped. For instance, if I type the following in my browser:
http://www.boost.org/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm
I get the following redirection:
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_36_0/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm
This is fine in that it allows us to keep a historic record of documentation across Boost versions. My little complain is that the automatic redirection makes it all too easy to inadvertently use version-specific URLs when referring to Boost docs in external contexts (blogs, forums, etc.) This is in my opinion unfortunate because such URLs are stuck in time and do not reflect the evolution of the library.
It would be nice to have http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/latest/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm with each versioned page having a link to the "most recent version of this document." -- Dave Abrahams BoostPro Computing http://www.boostpro.com

2008/10/10 David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com>:
It would be nice to have
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/latest/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm
We have: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/release/libs/smart_ptr/smart_ptr.htm Which is a temporary redirect, so that bots and the like might work out that they need to use it rather than the page it redirects to. I'm getting that url as the top hit for: http://www.google.com/search?q=boost+smart+pointer But that only really works for the top level of documentation. And, of course, most of us don't understand http redirects as well as google.
with each versioned page having a link to the "most recent version of this document."
Possibly. The problem is that files move around from version to version (especially in boostbook based reference documentation). But anyone who feels that this won't be a problem should feel free to add such links. Daniel
participants (3)
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Daniel James
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David Abrahams
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joaquin@tid.es