On Sun, 13 Nov 2011, Paul Menzel wrote:

>
> looking into typesetting URLs I find typesetting URLs quite cumbersome.
>
> Maybe I have not used that feature that often so I am not seeing the
> advantage to first define a URL somewhere and give it a name
>
>        \useURL[aurl]       [http://xkcd.com/149/] [] [I prefer hot
>        dogs.]
>
> and then later use it.
>
>        \url[aurl]

You just showed below why this is useful, by first using the urls ...

> The proposed macros(?) in the section »Tipps and Tricks« [2]
> [snip]

and then defining them.

> [1] http://wiki.contextgarden.net/url
> [2] http://wiki.contextgarden.net/url#Tipps_and_Tricks

ConTeXt is just doing the reverse: first define the urls and then use 
them :)

I support having commands which typeset the urls directly, but the macros on the
wiki are not the best ones.

> \def\href#1#2{\useURL[#2][{#2}][][{#1}]\goto{\url[#2]}[url(#1)]}

Why not simply:

\def\href#1#2{\goto{#2}[url(#1)]}

Or did I miss something?

> \def\ahref#1{\color[linkcolor]{\ttx \href{#1}{<#1>}}}
> \def\fullahref#1{\color[linkcolor]{\ttx \href{#1}{http://#1}}}

These could be easily wrapped around using \useURL and \url (perhaps by adding
left and right keys to \setupurl) but \url does not create a hyperlink:

http://archive.contextgarden.net/message/20110915.115247.f23c2aad.en.html

> \def\mailto#1{\useURL[#1][mailto:#1][][#1]\from[{#1}]}
> \def\MailTo#1#2{\useURL[#1][mailto:#1][][#2]\from[{#1}]}

Aditya